


The Last of the Real Ones

by SquidVicious



Series: When We Were Young [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry potter Hogwarts mystery
Genre: And maybe more brooding, But just as much danger, Gen, Less teenage angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-01-13 14:49:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18471172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquidVicious/pseuds/SquidVicious
Summary: Now adults, the Hogwarts Mystery gang finds themselves scattered and involved in resisting the inevitable take over by Voldermort and his death eaters. Ariadne Young must navigate Hogwarts again with the help of her best friend Rowan Khanna, to attempt to keep evil at bay once again.





	1. Wait For me

**Author's Note:**

> Just a general set up of all the characters and what they'll be doing throughout the war

_Do you see the world in different colors?_

_Do you see the world in black and gray?_

_Alone in your thoughts, how many others have stood where you stand today?_

_I've stood where you stand, but oh can you wait for me now?_

_To take off this crown_

_To break all these vows_

_Don't you know?  
_

_The airs running out_

_Wait for me now._

 

_\--_

All was not well, Ari reflected angrily from the living room of her home. She was pacing across the hardwood, stopping only to occasionally peek out a large, white curtained window. Sunlight streamed into the room, illuminating a napping cat in the corner. It had been mere days since Bill’s wedding had been raided by death eaters and the ministry had fallen. Half her friends were in hiding, their locations unknown even to her. The other half were in a precarious position like she was- known to be a resistance sympathizer but too pure blooded to do anything about.

Ari’s whole life had suddenly come to a standstill. She was technically still employed with Gringotts and could, theoretically, go back to curse breaking. Nothing was stopping her, except the intense scrutiny she might find herself under. How much did Voldemort know about Jacob’s death? She didn’t know- no one knew, which made being too close to the death eaters a bad idea. If they’d forgotten, or were unsure, why remind them?

Charlie had left the night before to see his brother and should have returned by now. The longer it took, the more agitated Ari became. Charlie was maybe the only Weasley who could claim plausible deniability when it came to resistance fighting. At Dumbledore’s request, he never left Romania, instead focusing his efforts on recruiting foreign wizards for help in whatever way they were willing to offer it. His last successful conquest had been acquiring a substantial sum of money from an Albanian wizard with a massive fortune. It was enough to hide several wizarding families for at least a year and had been a major victory for the Order.

Still, it wasn’t entirely safe to be a Weasley now. They were known sympathizers and it was only their untainted blood status that prevented death eaters from wiping them out entirely, though she knew many of them would have liked to do it, and would do it happily, were they given the chance. She took a deep breath and began pacing again, trying to keep her mind from going to a dark place. He was fine, just caught up with Bill. She knew he was worried about his younger brother, Ron, who had vanished alongside Harry Potter, though no one knew about it. Molly had managed to convince a slew of death eaters that Ron was the ghoul in the attic, too contagiously ill to be around anyone. Death eaters were not smart, she thought with some small amount of amusement.

She peered out the window and saw billowing black robes on the horizon. Her heart sank. It wasn’t Charlie walking towards her house. This was, she knew, what Dumbledore had wanted from her when he’d recruited them into the Order of the Phoenix. Ari’s task had always been hazy and uncertain. Dumbledore had warned her that at some point, Hogwarts might require her again and if it did, she had to promise him she’d go back, no matter the danger.

Stepping over her napping cat, she walked to the heavy wooden front door and opened it, though she refused to step off the porch. Snape couldn’t apparate any further to their house on purpose; no one could. She’d set their security up that way specifically, so any intruder would alert them before they arrived. The walk was rocky and could be difficult in the right weather. She considered sending a little wind his way, just to see the overgrown bat blow over but she refrained. Snape had killed Dumbledore and supposedly was Voldemort’s right-hand man. He could kill her before she could blink, and she didn’t want to provoke him.

“Snape,” she said coldly when he reached her porch.

“Young,” he replied tartly, clearly irritated he had to be there. Loathing bubbled into her throat and her grip around her wand tightened painfully. He’d _killed_ Dumbledore. He was supposed to be his friend, someone they could all trust. She felt sick. So what, she thought irrationally for a second, looking into the dead black pools of Snape’s eyes, if he killed her? Maybe she could take him with her.

The thought passed and she inhaled slowly before inviting her into her home. She would personally scrub every surface he touched, she thought as he sneered at her interior.

“Would you like any tea?” She offered through gritted teeth, her hatred radiating off her like a solar flare.

“I do not plan to stay,” Snape told her with the same grittiness.

“Well, how can I shorten your visit?” She asked him, refusing to even pretend to pleasant.

“As you must be aware, Hogwarts is, again, in need of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,” he began as the bottom dropped out of her stomach. Was he serious, her brain screamed?

“Surely there is someone better qualified?” She asked, her voice equal parts loathing and surprise.

“Only you,” he said, his voice punctuating each word with disappointment.

“How the standards have fallen in your organization,” she said without thinking. The warning look on his face told her to wrap this up before she eroded what little patience he had. “Of course, I’ll take the post.”

“I will be watching you closely as you teach…you will have standard to adhere to.”

“Of course,” she replied, tried to keep the bile rising in her throat from spilling out.

“This post is not a chance for you to relive your adolescence,” he continued, clearly regretting his choice already. It’s not as if she forced it upon him, she thought angrily.

“I would never dream of it,” she retorted with fake sincerity.

“Stepping out of line will mean consequences.”

“Geeze you don’t have to sell this job any harder, I already said yes,” she told him, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her words.

They stared, just for a moment and she wondered what could have prompted him to make such an offer. She was gripping her wand so hard her fingernails were digging into the palm of her hand. The air was thick with tension and Ari was scared to breathe or blink.

The front door flew open and Charlie appeared, his wand pointed directly at Snape, his face contorted with hatred. The spell was shattered, and Snape whipped around her. “The term begins September first,” he said before billowing out, leaving a confused Charlie and an irate Ari in his wake.

“Are you okay?” Charlie asked, crossing the room to pull her into his arms. Ari exhaled into his chest.

“You were late,” she told him after a moment, melting into him with closed eyes.

“I stopped by the house to see mum,” he told her after a pause. “Why was Snape here?”

“He wanted to offer me a job,” she told him, pulling out of Charlie’s arms to turn back to the window. Peering out revealed Snape was gone, back to the hole he’d crawled out of.

“A job doing what?” Charlie asked.

“Teaching,” she responded, looking back at her husband. “Defense against the dark arts.”

“Is he crazy?” Charlie asked, sinking onto their cream-colored couch.

“I think he had to ask me,” she told Charlie, apprehension creeping into her voice. “He seemed so agitated at the prospect. But Dumbledore wanted me to go back if I was asked, so I couldn’t say no.”

“It’s so much more dangerous than London ever could be,” Charlie told her, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I know. But better me teaching that class than a death eater. Plus, I can keep an eye on the students and try and mitigate any damage that might be done. Undo some of the harm.”

“I don’t like it,” he told her, aging before her eyes.

She sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t either…but I don’t think I would have had a choice, even if Dumbledore hadn’t asked me personally. I’ll be careful.”

They sat in silent, exhausted and afraid.

 

\--

“Snape has called me back to Hogwarts,” Barnaby told Rowan when he arrived home later that night. “To take Hagrid’s post.”

Rowan looked up from the kitchen table she was sitting at, preparing the upcoming years lessons. She taught Arithmancy at Hogwarts, the youngest teacher ever to do so. Barnaby worked for a magical menagerie in care of their more dangerous creatures. It was the perfect job for him, one that he had been doing continuously since they’d left Hogwarts and would have continued to do had Dumbledore not asked Barnaby to rejoin the ranks of his death eating parents as part of being a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Barnaby had, but it had come with sacrifices. They’d missed Bill’s wedding, for one, too afraid to be seen associating with the Weasley’s. Rowan, by extension, was also not supposed to be seen with any of her old friends which had caused more than one angry fight between them. Rowan was not the best choice of a wife for a pure blooded, Slytherin-heir wizard. Barnaby, in fact, had disowned his entire family to do so, a fact that was held against her whenever his family came around to visit. Everyone assumed the only reason he’d broken ties was to marry her, though, and not because he was a resistance sympathizer, which was the only positive side to the assumption that Barnaby was an idiot.

Still, Rowan was worried about Tonks and Tulip especially, now that Voldemort officially had control of the government. They both would have had to go underground, and Rowan was worried about Tonks especially. In a clandestine letter, Penny had informed her that Tonks was pregnant, the first in their group to become so. The stakes seemed so much higher for Tonks than any of them, who had always been called to action.

Truly though, none of them were safe. None of them could truly take this lying down, and the longer it the war dragged on, the more likely one or more of the would betray their loyalties and lose their lives became. Rowan was suddenly thankful that Barnaby would be going to Hogwarts with her, where, if nothing else, they could be together if it happened to one of them. She knew he’d never let anything happen to her if he could prevent it, and her him.

“That’s not all I learned,” he continued, oblivious to her line of thought. “Ari is also going back to Hogwarts.”

Rowan set her things down, surprised. “Back to Hogwarts? For what?”

“To teach,” he told her, pulling out one of the black, high backed chairs to sit. “Defense against the dark arts.”

“Snape wants our Ari to teach that class? Has he been obliviated?”

“I did not ask,” Barnaby told her softly, “But I was just as surprised. Surely he must see how counterproductive Ari would be to his overall agenda.”

“Maybe he wants to keep a closer watch on him? Or remind the Weasley’s he has both of their daughters, as a way of keeping them in line?”

“Do you think he suspects Charlie is aiding the Order?” Barnaby asked.

“He’d have to be stupid not to. He was a member, after all.”

“I don’t think Dumbledore told him very much. He doesn’t know about me, for instance.”

“Thank Merlin for small miracles,” Rowan said, closing her eyes. “Ari is going to get herself killed.”

“Ari isn’t seventeen anymore,” Barnaby reminded her.

“She’s still impulsive and reckless, and she’s never going to be able to take the things she see’s lying down. She’s never encountered the Carrow’s, you know.”

“Amycus and Alecto have been made deputy headmaster and mistress,” Barnaby told her, unsure if he’d remembered to tell Rowan that piece of information. It seemed that every day things got worse, and he couldn’t always keep up with it. Rowan sighed, putting her head in her hands.

“How can we keep these kids safe?” She asked the question to the universe.

“I don’t know,” Barnaby told her honestly. “But we have to try.”

\--

Ben Copper walked into the ministry nervously, unsure what his first day back at work would bring now that the ministry had officially fallen. He kept his expression light and his breathing steady as he made his way down to the department of mysteries, where he studied love. He wasn’t allowed to say much about his job as an unspeakable, which suited him just fine. Ben didn’t understand love much better than anyone else, and if he’d been asked to explain it, he wouldn’t have been able to do it justice. As a concept, love transcended them all, even death, though he would never have admitted that to anyone who worked on understanding the mysteries of death.

He expected his department to be dissolved under you-know-who’s reign and himself to be jobless. It was what he had been hoping for, to be honest. He planned to go stay with Andre in Ireland until things died down a little or the war ended. He had never been the fighting type, even with his record of helping Ariadne open the cursed vaults. He’d been more of a sideline player, he reflected. When she needed confrontational help, it was always someone else she considered before him.

He found himself standing in the back of a group of unspeakables he recognized, either in his own department or others, standing in front of the new minister, Pius Thickeness. Thickeness, Ben remembered, had been in charge of magical law enforcement before he’d achieved this new position. Through imperius curse he thought cynically. Everyone in the Order knew that and Ben was no different. He’d been inducted by Dumbledore alongside his friends though he’d never had any special or specific job. He’d just been asked to keep his ear to the ground at the ministry. Easy enough, he thought. He was so unassuming that no one suspected him of anything other than exactly what he said he was doing.

Thickeness was speaking, Ben realized. His voice echoed around the dark chamber, a little too cheerful despite both his surroundings and the general atmosphere of the ministry in general. “For too long,” Thickeness continued, his voice so upbeat it made Ben shiver, “muggle’s have managed to infiltrate our most sacred institutions! They steal our jobs, the commit crimes against us and they siphon our magic!”

Ben stared straight ahead, though his mind was reeling. What was Thickeness on about? He had never seen a muggle anywhere inside the wizarding world. He didn’t dare show any sort of confusion or emotion, aware that they were constantly being watched. “It is my dearest hope that we can put a stop to this deception once and for all. I leave it to you all to find how muggles are managing this so that good, honest wizards and witches may put a stop to it. I do not ask this lightly- and I expect results. All departments will work on unraveling how muggles have managed to use our magic until it has been uncovered.”

With a bounce in his step, Thickeness was heading back to the elevators, leaving the group of unspeakables to stand there dumbfounded. No one dared to speak for a moment, possibly as confused as Ben was himself. It was impossible for a muggle to use magic. Rookwood, a particularly vile death eater who had, until recently, been imprisoned, appeared from somewhere in the group.

“Stopping mudbloods is a matter of national importance,” he said in his nasally voice. Ben was repulsed by the sight of Rookwood’s pockmarked face, an outward indicator of the rot within, he thought. He was also disgusted that he would be expected to aid in the persecution of muggleborns. What would that mean muggleborns already in existence in their society? Surely most of them would know to hide now before things got any worse, right?

Was this what he was supposed to do in order to keep people safe? Attempt to sabotage this new research into muggleborns that Rookwood was, presumably, going to spearhead at the behest of the new minister? Could he do it without detection? He didn’t have much faith in his ability, but as a wizard with a respectable lineage, he felt it was his duty to stay instead of resigning and attempt to mitigate some of the damage that would inevitably be done. Perhaps, even if he couldn’t stop whatever nonsense Rookwood would put out in the name of mysteries discovered, he could warn muggleborn’s of the coming danger and aid them in their escape.

He sighed before following his contemporaries into their respected departments, prepared for whatever came next. He had to try and do something. To do nothing meant being complicit and Ben had been a Gryffindor.

This would be the legacy he left behind.

\--

Penny hadn't been able to leave with Tulip when Tulip was forced into hiding. She needed to stay, if for no other reason that the people at St. Mungo's needed her. She was their best potion master and abandoning them meant leaving them in the hands of death eaters, who seemed to have permeated every part of their society. Tonks and her husband Remus were gone as well, hopefully safe with Tulip, though she didn't expect to hear anything from any of them for several weeks or more. She knew, and Tulip would know too, that they were being watched.

Penny sighed as she made her way to Bill Weasley's parent's house. He would be there with his new wife, Fleur, as they waited for permission to leave. The ministry was evaluating all their employees and she knew from personal contacts that Bill had not been evaluated yet. It wasn't a social visit, though no one would expect it not to be. Penny's job in the Order was simple, compared to others. She just had to continue collecting information, as she always had done, and pass it along if it was useful. She always passed it on to Molly Weasley now that Dumbledore was gone. She didn't trust everyone in the order, not after being asked to trust Snape only to be brutally stabbed in the back with Dumbledore's death. She'd always thought that Snape could not be trusted. Who else, she wondered as she arrived at the Burrow, could also not be trusted?

The Weasley's were always a safe bet. Molly and Arthur seemed so unassuming and non-threatening. Penny was confident that by the time the war ended, Voldemort himself would curse himself for his underestimation of them. She was grateful for it, though. It gave her somewhere to go when she felt overwhelmingly lonely. She hadn't ever been separated from Tulip longer than a night. It could be years until they saw each other again. After all, this entire war hinged on one teenage boy figuring out how to take down a near immortal wizard. It had taken Ari seven years to foil her own brother, who wasn't half as powerful as Voldemort. How long would it take Harry? 

"Penny," Ginny said when Penny knocked on the door.

"I've got a remedy for Ron," Penny told Ginny, though they both knew Ron was not upstairs. She indicated towards the basket on her arm which held nothing but butterbeer corked up in vials and a bunch of biscuits. Ginny nodded, peering beyond Penny for a moment, and then let her into the house.

"Mum is in the kitchen," she told her before heading back upstairs. Penny was tempted to call the girl back and ask her how she was really doing, what with her brother gone and Harry as well, but decided against it. Knowing everyone's personal business was both a blessing and a curse, and there was no reason to remind Ginny that she was also alone and waiting for someone who might never come back. 

"Penny," Molly said when she saw her. Penny set her basket on the table, pulling back the lid to reveal nothing special. 

"I thought you might be too tired to worry about bread tonight," Penny told her sympathetically.

"It has been...well, you know."

"It's not forever," Penny reminded her with as much cheer as she could muster. "Tulip and Tonks will be back when things settle down a bit. And so will...Ron's going to be feeling like his usual self in no time, too. Before you know it."

Molly brushed a tear away quickly, reaching into the basket to sort the biscuits. "Of course you're right. Everything will...well, I keep telling myself anyway that things will work themselves out. I just wish everyone was here and safe..."

She glanced towards her clock, which had everyone pointing towards mortal danger. Penny stared too, focusing on Charlie's line for a beat too long. Her thoughts drifted towards Ari. Had the rest of the Weasley's heard that Snape was installing her at Hogwarts, likely under Voldemort's direction? Penny was terrified when she thought about it.If Voldemort had an inkling of what Ari had done in an attempt to thwart his rise to power, than putting her at Hogwarts was just a formality before killing her. It seemed too indirect for him, but perhaps he didn't want to kill her outright, or was unsure the part she'd played in the events leading up to Jacob's death. 

"Did you hear Ari has been asked to go back to Hogwarts?" Penny finally asked, delivering the news that she knew the Order didn't know about. Rowan had told Penny in a letter, having learned the information from Barnaby the day before. She knew Ari would be keeping it underwraps for as long as possible, in part to keep anyone from talking her out of it. It was even possible that Charlie himself did not know. Ari could keep a secret if she wanted to. Penny remembered the shock when Charlie realized Ari had left all her inheritance to him at the beginning of their last year, a preventative measure in the off chance she died. 

"By who?" Molly asked, sinking into a chair, her face ghost white.

"Snape apparently asked her personally," Penny confided. "I don't think she had a choice."

"He'll kill her," Molly whispered as Ginny appeared from around the corner, eavesdropping as usual. It was just Ginny in the house now. All her brothers had moved out. Soon Ginny would be back on the train, leaving Molly and Arthur to worry alone.

"Ari's going to be at Hogwarts?" She asked, her face a little brighter.

"She's teaching defense against the dark arts," Penny continued as Molly buried her face in her hands. 

"That's excellent! We'll finally be getting some proper instruction!"

"You shush!" Molly hissed at her daughter, who pulled out a chair to join the conversation. "You don't know what went on during their tenure at Hogwarts...oh the danger they got themselves into."

"Ari opened all the cursed vaults," Penny agreed, downplaying her own involvement. She'd certainly been an active player. "But I'm sure she's going to keep a low profile now."

Ginny chuckled. "That doesn't sound like the Ari I know. She told one of the death eaters at Bill's wedding to blow her."

Penny remembered that. It had been Ismelda, an old rival of Ari's, and Ari couldn't resist. She tried not to laugh in the face of Molly Weasley's horrified face. 

"What will Charlie do without her?" She ignored Ginny's comment about the death eater.

"He's going to manage just fine without her. It's not like they're sending his dragons to Hogwarts," Ginny told her mom, rolling her eyes. Penny couldn't help but laugh this time. 

"Ari's going to be fine," Penny assured Molly. "She'll be able to keep a closer eye on Ginny there, at any rate, and the more Order members we have in Hogwarts, the better. Just like at the ministry."

Molly took a deep breath, nodding her head. "You're right. I know you're right. I'm just worried."

"I know," Penny agreed. "So am I."

\--

Tulip and Tonks made it to Andromeda's Tonk's house without Remus. Remus was gone, having had an absolute breakdown regarding marrying Tonks and then getting her pregnant. Tulip was trying to keep her irritation deeply hidden, but she was living with him. He had, essentially, abandoned his pregnant wife when they were supposed to be lay low together. Tonks was trying to keep a cheerful face about her, but Tulip knew she was miserable, having only just convinced Remus to marry her. He was, Tulip decided, the angsty-est grown man she'd ever met. Tulip was in absolute agony over having to leave Penny, though she knew Penny was doing fine, while they waited until it was safe for them to resurface. Tulip and Tonks had both participated in the battle of Department of Mysteries, and were well-known sympathizers. She just needed to be able to show that they were willing to assimilate under Voldemort, even though neither of them were willing to at all, and would be jumping at the chance to take it all apart when the opportunity presented itself.

Still, she didn't know how much she could take. The only thing that ever made Tulip feel at peace was being with Penny, and she'd been robbed of that when the ministry fell and the absolute idiot, Thickeness, had been elevated from his position in charge of the Magical Law Enforcement department to puppet minister. She knew, from Penny who knew through a kind of magic no one could explain, that Thickeness was under the imperius curse, but that didn't make Tulip any more sympathetic to him or his plight, when she was exiled in with a member of a Black's home. Andromeda seemed normal, which was at least something. Sometimes these old families were filled with eccentric wackadoodles, and Tulip, for whatever reason, had always assumed Tonk's mom was one of them. They had, after all, named her Nymphadora, a terrible name even by pure blood standards. The Weasley's all had normal names, she reasoned. 

Ari hadn't, but she was part Greek so it wasn't entirely her mom's fault, although her mom, Helene, was another pure blooded weirdo. However, unlike Helene, Andromeda had married a muggle, Ted, who was in hiding somewhere else. So, really, all three of them were separated from the people they loved, unwillingly, and could find comfort in that. Except, unlike Andromeda and Tonks, Tulip would get to go back, hopefully by Christmas. She didn't know if Ted or Remus would ever be back, though if she ever found Remus she would drag him back personally, after jinxing him from here to Edinburgh. 

"You won't tell Penny, will you?" Tonks asked Tulip later, when they were mostly alone. Tulip was supposed to be settling into her bedroom, a small guest room on the main floor that was plastered in floral wallpaper. Tulip looked at her friend, keeping the pity out of her eyes. Penny, while well-meaning, would surely tell their entire group in an attempt to ice Remus out permanently. It seemed like a good plan to Tulip, right about now. Tonks wasn't showing yet, but soon she would be and it would be impossible for anyone to miss that she was now a single mother.

"Of course not," Tulip agreed, watching Tonks sit on her bed.

"He's just having a crisis," Tonks told her without much confidence. "He thinks he's ruined our lives."

"This is why I don't like men," Tulip told her with sincerity, joining her on the mattress. "But I think he'll come back once he's calmed down."

"Even if this baby is a...I mean....it's not the end of the world, is it?"

Tulip shook her head fiercely. "Of course not. He's being irrational. It doesn't have to be a curse."

"I just think...well, you know, Bill when he was scratched up...he wouldn't have delved into self-loathing about Fleur, right?"

"Well, Bill's probably got a lot more self-confidence. You know, because he's always been handsome and well liked? But Remus..."

"Yeah," Tonks said. Tulip didn't need to finish her thought. They both knew that Remus had had different parents than Bill, and had been brought up to view his lycanthropy as a virus instead of embracing it as part of who he was. It would always have been different for Bill, who had grown up being the cherished oldest son of the Weasley's, hero-worshiped by all his siblings, and the kind of suave curse breaker that could get a woman as beautiful as Fleur to want to marry him. Remus didn't have any of that going on. Not that he wasn't brave, good looking, or intelligent in his own right. He just didn't seem to see any of his better qualities. 

Tonks did, though. Somehow, and Tulip would never understand it, Tonks had managed to see the best in Remus even if he couldn't see it himself and she loved him for it. Tonks, who had given a twenty minute speech at her own wedding about the dangers of marrying too young, complete with the divorce rates of people who married at eighteen. Tonks, who had given Ari plane tickets to South America, and annulment papers, just in case she changed her mind. Tonks, who had straight up told Rowan that marrying into the Lee family might mean children who were sorted into the Slytherin house and cautioned her to reconsider it. Tonks had always been anti-marriage for as long as Tulip could remember. Remus was more than just special if Tonks had been willing to abandon her long standing feelings surrounding marriage.

Which made Remus' leaving all the more infuriating. "You know," Tulip mused, trying to form her idea into words. "If we told Penny she might be able to beat some sense into him..."

"No." Tonks said firmly, "He'll come back when he's ready. He's going to come back. I know it."

Tulip was unwilling to argue with her best friend, who also happened to be pregnant. If Tonks believed it, that was going to have to be good enough for her. At least for now. She decided that if Remus wasn't back by Christmas, which was the absolute longest that Tulip was willing to stay in semi- self-imposed exile, she would find him herself, and drag him back.

\--

 


	2. Hiding Bottles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst

_I've been flying all night_

_A legend or a fool? Can't I be both?_

_Your voice is breaking up; manslaughter to the vibe_

_Think I hear what you're saying, think I need a drink_

_Well, I'm keeping it together but you don't know the half of it_

_Starting to show, no, I'm not on top of this_

_No you can't run away from this hell you're in_

_There's no place you can go now and start again_

 

 

\--

\--

If Ari knew what he was up to, she’d have most certainly stopped him. Charlie clenched his jaw and kept walking, his footsteps echoing softly on the cobblestoned road beneath him. There was nothing to offset the sound in the middle of the night, not that anyone outside of him could hear him. The moon was shadowed by gloomy clouds overhead, shielding him from anyone who might think to peak out their windows so late at night. Not that they would, he thought to himself. Besides, he had every right to be out at night. His ancestry protected him from even the stupidest of death eaters.

There was a possibility that once Ari left for Hogwarts she might never come back to him. The thought was enough to drag him out of his warm bed in Romania, away from his sleeping wife, to beg his friends for favors. He didn’t anticipate anyone telling him no; everyone owed Ari in spades, if she’d ever thought to collect.

He was going to do it on her behalf. He considered it his right, as Mr. Ari Young, and if he didn’t, he might lose his mind. She’d have a giant target painted on her back even if she kept her head down and maintained a low profile. He’d known her since she was eleven years old, well enough to know for certain that even if she wanted to, she couldn’t keep trouble from finding her.

She’d need allies. Rowan and Barnaby were all well and good, but Barnaby had a cover to maintain and his own wife to think about. If it came down between protecting Rowan or Ari, he was positive Barnaby wouldn’t hesitate to chose Rowan and hope Ari could manage on her own. Charlie couldn’t feel anything but sympathy when he imagined the choice because he’d make the exact same one. Ari would need as many of the old group he could assemble without being obvious. He couldn’t find an excuse to install himself near Hogwarts, but he could send Penny out there, and by extension, Tulip as well. Tulip was keeping a low profile for now with Tonks until things settled into a “normal” that allowed them to re-emerge, and once that happened one the England’s best aurors would be a hop, skip, and a jump away from Ari.

Andre would be in Hogsmeade, too, managing the only clothing shop in the little village. Charlie had considered that a stroke of genius when Andre wrote to him, just a friend commiserating with another Quidditch loving friend about how war was bad for the sport. Charlie had urged him to take the available post, selfishly, but Andre had accepted with no hesitation. That would surround Ari with almost the entirety of the old crowd, save Tonks, himself, and Ben.

His stomach dropped a little. He had his own job he couldn’t just abandon, even if he could leave his dragons to the care of other people. Dumbledore had tasked him with recruiting any foreign witch or wizard he could, in whatever way he could and he couldn’t just drop that because he was worried about Ari.

As if Snape would ever allow a Weasley so close to the school. He sighed softly to himself, forcing himself to be satisfied with this outcome. Ari had been the best defensive fighter among them, he reminded himself. She could handle herself. He shouldn’t be sending their friends into danger in order to babysit her.

It didn’t stop him from knocking quickly on the solid, wood front door that belonged to Tulip and Penny. A light flipped on from the upstairs bedroom he knew Penny slept in and he stepped off the porch so she could see it was him when she peered out the window. Sure enough, he saw curtains flutter quickly and then the sound of heavy feet pound down wooden stairs.

The door flung open and Penny, wrapped in a fluffy white robe, greeted him, her usual tidy blonde hair messy around her face.

“Come on,” she urged quietly, looking behind him before shutting the door. “Did anyone see you?”

“I doubt it,” he told her, looking around. The place had an eclectic vibe that simultaneously made him think of his mom and a little anxious. Penny had given Tulip too much license to decorate, and Tulip had no real sense when it came to picking a decorative theme and sticking to it. Bright orange and dark blue walls welcomed him, covered in odd paintings and knick-knacks. A loud, floral couch framed by mismatched side tables beckoned him and he sat on it, sinking into the worn cushions.

“Is something wrong?” Penny asked him, sitting close to him, her legs folded under her body. She looked apprehensive and he wished he’d written to her before hand. He’d been mulling this idea in his head for days before he finally acted tonight. It didn’t help that Ari barely slept anymore, making sneaking out difficult.

“I want to ask you a favor on behalf of Ari,” he began, ignoring how Penny’s eyebrow arched delicately. Penny, maybe more than anybody, owed Ari a massive debt. It had been Ari, after all, that had rescued her sister Beatrice from a cursed painting.

“Does Ari know you’re asking me?” Penny asked, but he knew they both knew the answer to that question.

“You know she doesn’t,” he responded with a heavy sigh. “I’m hoping I can convince you to take over Piper’s Potion Palace.”

“In Hogsmeade?” Penny asked with surprise. “I can’t imagine there is much of a market for homemade potions.”

“There’s not a market for anything anymore,” Charlie said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “This isn’t about profit; it’s about friendship.”

“She doesn’t need me to watch over her. I think you know that,” Penny said gently, sweeping her hair to one shoulder as her blue eyes searched Charlie’s exhausted face. “But I’ll go if you want me to.”

He sighed with relief. “It would mean a lot to me.”

“I know. In these times, we have to hold on to each other, right? My wife is my braver half, too, you know. I know what it’s like worrying if she’s okay or wondering if today will be the day she starts a fight she can’t finish.”

Charlie motioned for Penny to scoot closer until she was leaning softly into his body, her head resting on his shoulder and his on top of her head. She reached down and grasped his calloused hand gently. “It shouldn’t be like this,” he whispered into her hair. She nodded and he heard a soft sniff. He hadn’t thought, when he’d set out to beg this favor of Penny, that she might have an idea of how he was feeling. He had been keeping all his emotions pent up inside, terrified if he broke Ari might lose some of her resolve. He was supposed to be brave and fearless, after all. It was practically written in his DNA.

He couldn’t contain it anymore, not with a softly crying Penny wrapped in his arms. He let a tear escape his own eye, wiping it quickly before clearing his throat. Penny pulled out of the embrace to laugh a little.

“It’s hard, being the one who waits,” she chuckled with embarrassment, wiping her own cheeks.

“We make it look so good though,” he joked, remembering Ari and Bill’s long-standing joke about being attractive and smart.

“Oh well, they can’t have everything. They can have glory, but we get eternal youth and honestly I think that’s the better end of that bargain.”

Charlie stood after a glance towards the window. The night was starting to give way into dawn and Ari would be awake if he wasn’t careful.

“Thank you for this,” he told her seriously, pulling her into another hug. She squeezed tight.

“Hey, you’d do it for me, right?”

“Always.”

\--

She’d laid motionless as he slipped out of bed. She kept her eyes squeezed shut tightly, listening to him rustle blindly in the dark for his clothes and quietly slip out. She waited until she heard his feet reach the bottom of the stairs before she finally pulled the blankets back and made her way to the window. She watched him from behind a curtain, his body silhouetted by a bright, Romanian moon, before he vanished at the edge of their property. He wouldn’t need to apparate to visit dragons, which were behind the house towards the mountains anyway.

She sighed softly, flicking her wand upward quickly to light the room. She pulled a long, gray sweater over her pajama dress and retraced her husbands’ steps to the outside of their house. She had half a mind to make a call of her own, but instead decided she’d wait until the sun came up. He’d been distant lately, try as he might to hide it. They’d been married for five years now, friends for over a decade. She could read Charlie Weasley like a book- he never tried to conceal his emotions to begin with, which admittedly made things easy. He’d been trying harder this week and she’d graciously let him.

She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what was bothering him. He didn’t want her to go to Hogwarts but his pride wouldn’t let him beg her not to. On that front, Ari was personally grateful. She didn’t think she would be able to tell him no if he asked her to stay. After all, here in Romania she was much safer than her friends. She could strengthen their defenses, move them further into the unforgiving terrain of the mountains, and dare a death eater to come for her.

It would take almost nothing for her to agree to do this. A soft touch, a gentle word, blue eyes flashing pleadingly. She imagined what it would be like if he asked her. Ari was, at her core, a Hufflepuff after all. It wasn’t in her nature to run head first into danger for danger’s sake. She’d never considered bravery her core trait. Loyalty, sure. Back then, when she’d been in school, her loyalty had always been to her family first, even when Jacob betrayed her. Her motivations had changed very little as she aged, but her family was radically different. For the first time in her life she had something she was fiercely protective of and the idea of walking away from it on principle made her a little sick.

In her lowest moments, she fumed internally that she’d already given enough to this war. She’d begun fighting it over a decade ago. How could anyone ask her to keep fighting? Hadn’t she given enough? Had she not suffered enough?

She shook her head as a warm breeze brought her back to sense. Who hadn’t suffered? What kind of coward would allow her friends to fight for her while she hid? Ari knew she had to go, even if she didn’t want to. She looked up at the clear sky, awash with stars, and wished for an obvious sign. She just wanted to know that everything was going to be okay and what she was about to do mattered.

She expected him to try and slip back in before the sun started to rise, but pink began washing away the stars while she sat out there, knees pulled up to her chest. Charlie still wasn’t back. She wasn’t going to be able to force this conversation yet, she realized as she made her way back inside. Jeans, a t-shirt, and a pony tail later and she was back outside, hoping for a glimpse of him. Nothing.

Fine, she decided. She knew by the time she got back, he’d be home and hopefully ready to talk about his feelings. And if not, she thought to herself, she’d badger him until he was so exasperated, he blurted it all out. Satisfied, she screwed her eyes shut and with a pop! She was gone.

\--

Bill was surprised Ari hadn’t come sooner. He’d expected her the second Snape had demanded her presence at his school, but she’d been holed up with his brother, unreachable. He’d kept his distance mostly out of respect, as well as a desire not to accidentally see something he didn’t want to. After all, Ari was his sister now, though in a way she’d really always been, and he knew if he had to send his wife into a viper pit, he’d keep her isolated and undressed for as long as he possibly could.

That didn’t mean he wanted to see what that scenario looked like when it was Charlie and Ari, instead of Fleur. Besides, Ari was tricky. She always did the right thing, in the end, but sometimes took the scenic route to get there. She didn’t need a long-winded lecture from him about how her self-doubts were unfounded.

He could tell from her face she hadn’t slept the night before. He had brought her into the small cottage and set her at the table with a mug of hot tea that she was absentmindedly blowing on, but not drinking.

“Charlie didn’t come home last night,” she finally said, looking up at him blankly. Bill’s stomach dropped suddenly. It was the kind of news he dreaded. Ari looked so pale and tired, maybe he’d guessed the context of her appearance wrong. He’d assumed they’d been keeping each other awake but what if Charlie was carrying out dangerous Order missions and that’s what was keeping her up at night. “And I know he was seeing someone. He’s been so quiet lately.”

“Charlie is seeing another woman?” Bill asked incredulously, his heartbeat slowing slightly. Ari’s head snapped up so quickly it looked like it hurt, her green eyes flashing dangerously.

“In what world Billiam Weasley?” She demanded, some of her old fire peaking through her exhaustion.

“You said-“ Bill began helplessly but the Ari he remembered was reemerging like a sleepy dragon.

“That he was seeing someone. Like…Ben. Another woman, please. Is he even aware other women exist?” She scoffed. “Have you seen my face? Charlie seeing another woman.”

“You were always the only woman,” Bill agreed, sitting at the table across from Ari. He swept his hair out of his face, ignoring the slight wince of her features when she caught sight of his scar. A memory flooded in, without warning, of when Ari had seen the damage done by Grayback. Somehow, seeing her the tears roll down her cheek, her hand over her mouth, had been almost as bad as the event itself. If Ari couldn’t make a joke about his appearance, things were bad. She’d been too far away to help, and he knew she took on a lot of responsibility for that. They’d never talked about it. She’d left without a word when his mom had began wailing again and it had never been brought up again.

He watched her eyes linger on it before looking back down at her mug again. “Who do you think he went to see?”

She kept her eyes on her cooling drink and shrugged. “I don’t know. He hasn’t said much about going back to Hogwarts, even though it’s practically around the corner. I know it’s eating away at him though. Sometimes I think…hope…that he’ll ask me not to go.”

“He won’t,” Bill said softly. She nodded.

“I wish he’d talk about it. I’m scared too, you know.”

Bill scooted his chair nosily against the hard wood until the backs of the chairs were touching. He put his hand on her arm, letting his skin press against her own for a second in a moment of warm familiarity. “We’re all scared,” he told her with a touch more vulnerability than he meant. “I would imagine he’s trying to shield himself as much as you from his own fear.”

She pressed her fingertips to her lips and closed her eyes as a tear slipped down her cheek. Bill reached out and brushed it away quickly. “Sometimes I think we can’t all make it through this alive and I think what if…”

“Don’t,” he cut her off before she could finish the sentence. It was his fear, too. She looked up at him with watery, green eyes. Her bottom lip was quavering slightly, and he knew that she had all the same fears keeping her awake at night too.

“You know what my family was like,” she whispered, her face desperate. “Charlie was…is…”

“Nothing is going to happen to either of you,” Bill told her fiercely. “You have to believe that.”

“Have you met me?” She laughed, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. “I opened a cursed vault as an eleven-year-old.”

“That’s right,” he told her, putting his hands on either side of her face. “You opened a cursed vault when you were eleven. Imagine what you could do now, if you needed to. You have this warped image of yourself that you’re some kind of walking disaster-“

“-Because I am-“

“But you’re powerful, Ari. You always have been. If Snape has to risk bringing you under his roof to keep an eye on you, it’s because he’s scared. As for Charlie, he’s tough and he’s not going to let anything happen to him while you’re gone. You aren’t responsible for all of us.”

Her eyes made their way back to his scar. He dropped his hands from her face as she gingerly reached up and traced it along his cheek, her features contorted with regret.

“If I’d been there-“she began but he shook his head.

“You have elected yourself the mayor of everyone’s pain and suffering,” he told her gently. “You always have, and I think I’ve known you best and longest, compared to anyone. Save maybe Rowan. Maybe if you’d been there no one would have been hurt or died. Or maybe it would have played out the exact same way. You can’t live here, like this, Ari. In the what if’s and maybes. Remind yourself who you are. Ariadne Weasley. One of the best curse breakers in the world. The cursed girl who opened all the cursed vaults before she was eighteen years old. Who went up against you-know-who, even when it meant destroying her own brother in the process? You’re a legend and nothing less. When has fear ever stopped you before?”

“You forgot really, really good looking. I don’t want to ruin your speech with constructive criticism, but it is kind of the most important thing and you just left it out…” she teased, taking a deep breath.

“You’re right, and it’s embarrassing that I could overlook the most crucial part of your identity. I mean, yeah, you’re the legendary cursed girl but no one ever brings you up in conversation without mentioning your legendary face,” he responded with a tinge of sarcasm.

She stood. “Sarcasm is a bad look for you, Bill, but I’m going to ignore it because you’re so right. Everyone remembers Ari Young as the best-looking person to ever grace Hogwarts’ halls.”

“You’re confusing yourself with me again but I’m going to over look it,” he told her seriously, standing as well. He pulled her into a tight hug, letting it linger just a beat too long, just in case. Pretty speeches and teasing aside, Ari was in danger and he didn’t know when he’d see her again. He wondered if she knew that he was hugging her just a little longer because he was afraid it’d be the last.

“Go home and have an honest conversation with my brother.”

“I will.”

He watched as she made her way to the door before he called after her. “And Ari?”

“Yeah?”

“Be safe.”

She hesitated, just for a moment, regret flickering across her face so quickly he almost thought he imagined it.

“I will.”

\--

When Ari got back home, the sun was high in the sky and she felt emotionally drained. It took all her willpower to walk through her front door and confront her husband, who was pacing back and forth in their living room. She hadn’t known he was pacing but she could feel his anxious energy the moment she was back in the perimeter of their home. When he saw her, he froze for a moment before crossing the distance between them and pulling her into his body. She didn’t fight it; it felt good to let him touch her.

“Where were you?” He asked, his hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair.

“I went to have breakfast with Bill,” she told him. “I woke up and you were gone-“

“I went to see Penny,” he told her quickly. “I didn’t mean to be gone as long as I was.”

She nodded, burying her face into his chest for a moment and inhaling deeply. “I’m scared,” she finally said, taking Bill’s advice.

“Me too,” he admitted, his lips pressed into her hair. “Sometimes…I wish…” His voice trailed off and she didn’t ask him to finish his sentence. That way lied madness, and she knew it. She was hanging on by a thread and if Charlie could stay strong, so could she. She just pressed a kiss into the hollow of his neck as acknowledgement of what he wished, because she wished it too.

“It’s not forever,” she whispered as he brought his mouth closer to hers. Her blood felt electric in her veins, even after all this time. Part of it, she reflected later when they were back in bed and the moment had passed, was just how they’d always been. Something about him made her lose all sense. He’d always been the only one. She could joke with Bill that Charlie had never noticed another woman, but she’d never really been any different, she’d just tried a little harder. She thought back to their fifth year in the forbidden forest, when he’d been enchanted by a dragon and she’d dropped Jacob’s notebook in a bid to keep the only real thing she loved safe, though she hadn’t known it at the time. Charlie had always been what was important.

But the other part, the intensity of the attraction, that was new. Born from the time in which they found themselves in, where they weren’t entirely sure how much time they had left with each other which made ever touch feel more important and more desperate. When they got like that it was as if she wasn’t herself anymore, but someone else, someone she didn’t recognize. Someone driven by pure instinct and Charlie was just the first thing she could grab in an attempt to save her life.

He was asleep next to her, one arm thrown out casually. She was resting her head on it, studying him. She wanted to commit every freckle to memory so that when he was gone, she could remember him exactly as he was right now, in this moment. His chest rose and fell softly, his long hair falling casually across his face.

“You’re staring,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed.

“You’re really beautiful,” she told him honestly, brushing an orange strand of hair from his face softly with her fingertips.

“You’re beautiful,” he retorted sleepily, shifting so he was on his side. He wrapped both arms around her body and pulled her flush against him. “We’re going to be okay.”

 

Ari tried to remember that moment, a week later when she was standing back on Hogwarts grounds. She didn’t want to think about saying good bye to Charlie or the look on his face that she was certain mirrored the only terror she felt internally. She held on to his voice, telling her they’d be okay. She looked up at the castle, once a refuge. It looked different to her now. Forbidding somehow. She took a deep breath, and then a step forward.

They were going to be okay.

 


	3. What if?

_What if it makes you lose faith in me?_

_And what if it makes you question every moment you cannot see?_

_And what if it makes you crash?_

_What if you can't find the key?_

_And what if it makes you ask how you could all go?_

Somehow, and he didn’t know how, Ben had managed to escape the evaluation all other employees had gotten regarding their birth and blood status. In other circumstances it would have annoyed him because it was just more proof that he was largely invisible to most people. However, after witnessing what happened to muggle born witches and wizards, Ben was grateful that he was as vibrant as khaki colored paint. Someone, somewhere, had checked his name off as having passed and he would live to see another day.

For now, anyway. His research, done inadvertently at first, was now playing a larger part in the trials of all muggleborns. They had struggled, for a while, trying to follow Thickness’s directions until it became clear what the administration really wanted: proof muggles were attempting to steal magic. Ben had tried his best to stall the research for as long as possible, but it seemed like he was the only one. What they, the unmentionables, had produced was a justification for genocide.

He dreaded walking into work every day. Part of it was his own fear: he knew at some point he’d be caught. His name was bound to be on one of the stacks of lists of muggle borns living in England and it was only a matter of time before someone caught the mistake. He should go into hiding, and he sometimes willed himself to just vanish, like so many others around him. Resurface when the war was over. No one would blame him.

But he couldn’t. Not when his friends were all in the thick of it, working their hardest to resist wherever they could. He’d been inducted as a member of the Order, just like the rest of them, hadn’t he? Dumbledore believed in him and so he kept going into the bowls of the ministry, looking for anyway to undo the damage he’d done.

He stumbled on his idea inadvertently. Rookwood, the absolute moron, was in possession of the lists and had left them laying out for anyone to read. Ben grabbed as many as he could, hoping Rookwood wouldn’t be back, and began scrawling the names down as fast as he could, page after page until he had every name. He knew it wasn’t everybody. There were hundreds more, on pages he didn’t have access to. He left the list exactly where Rookwood had dumped it, afraid to push his luck further and do away with it completely. Instead, he decided, he would begin warning the people on the list to get out of England if they could and go into hiding.

Do as I say, not as I do, he thought to himself that night as his hand cramped. Another letter, begging another wizard to get out before the ministry came for him. Warning them of what the trials looked like and what it would mean if they had a family. Especially children. Children of muggleborns were taken, though nobody knew where they went or what happened to them once they were gone.

A knock from the front door nearly sent him to an early grave. It was close to midnight, too late for anyone with good intentions to be calling. He made his way quietly to the front door without turning on a light, his wand clutched in his hand as he looked out the peep hole of his door. With a sigh of relief, he undid the latch and let Bill Weasley into his tiny home outside London.

“Are you crazy?” Bill asked once the door was shut firmly behind them. “Do you know the risk Fleur took getting your name taken off the registry?”

Ben blinked. How could Bill possibly know he was warning muggleborns? He had told no one. “What are you talking about? Fleur did what?”

Bill grabbed his arm and dragged him into the kitchen, away from the door. “Fleur saw your name on one of the lists for evaluation and she marked you off. We thought you’d do the sensible thing and go into hiding until the war is over but you’re still turning up to work. Why?”

“Why would I go into hiding?” Ben asked, feeling slightly defensive. He knew exactly why Bill thought he’d do that. He had a long reputation as a coward.

“Because it’s dangerous, especially with Rookwood sniffing around. They might not figure it out, but someone who knows you might tip them off. You need to think in the long term.”

“And run away?” Ben asked slowly, looking pointedly at Bill, who was risking a lot just by warning him.

“No, go into hiding, like Tonks and Tulip are doing,” Bill said firmly. Ben took a soft breath in and let it out noiselessly. Tonks and Tulip weren’t hiding, they were just biding their time. Anyone who wanted to find them could. Tulip would be back in the office by the end of the year, if not sooner.

“I think I’ll take my chances,” Ben finally told him, knowing full well that if the circumstances were different, Bill would never have left. Bill, he knew, would be furious if Ben had ever even suggested it to him. “But thanks for the heads up.”

Bill looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it. “If you change your mind…”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Ben promised, though he had no intention of ever taking Bill up on that offer. He felt like he had real purpose now. He wasn’t going to abandon it in a moment of fear. He waited until Bill was gone before he went back to his letter writing, trying to shake of the shame he felt from the interaction to begin with. He’d confused Bill by not staying. That was a poor reputation to have.

With a stronger sense of purpose, he continued on, determined to get more names from Rookwood in the coming days. It was the best he could do.

 

\--

 It had taken Ari almost no time to unpack her belongings. She felt a little bad that she’d stolen the literal blanket from the bed she shared with Charlie, because it was entirely possible, he wouldn’t bother replacing it with anything as warm or comfortable, but it smelled like him and it reminded her of home. She was sitting on top of it at that moment, looking around her new space. She’d thought that maybe teachers lived in dorms like the students did, but her office was connected to her living quarters, which were also connected to her classroom. She basically lived where she worked, with very little distance between any of it.

She should go find Rowan or Barnaby, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to wallow in her sadness at being forced here, in this tiny room so far away from her home, back in the thick of it. She wondered what would happen if she made her way down to the old corridor where the first vault was located and re-opened it. Could she get herself out of this mess if she pretended just her presence was enough to make things fall apart?

A knock broke her out of her thoughts. Barnaby, handsomer than he’d ever been, was leaning against the door frame. He was in well fitting black slacks and a emerald green sweater that clung softly to his body. His dark hair was tousled as if he’d just woken up though Ari knew better- Barnaby always styled himself this way. She breathed out, noting the sharpness of his jaw and his same, high cheekbones that made his bright, green eyes seem almost shocking. He offered her a half smile before coming in.

“Ariadne,” he finally said, standing a foot from the bed, studying her the same way she was studying him. She wondered if she looked the same as he remembered her, or did he see someone different? Barnaby looked like an adult version of the boy she’d known here. Sometimes, when she looked back on everything, it felt like it had been one hundred years and not just seven.

“Barnaby,” she responded, willing herself to get up and go to him. She couldn’t bring herself to do it. She felt frantic, suddenly, overwhelmed and anxious like she needed to get out of there or she’d fall apart. She lifted her arms up like she was going to propel herself out of bed, but the rest of her body didn’t move, and her arms fell back onto the fabric as she looked at him helplessly.

He crossed the space and sat on the bed next to her, grabbing her hand. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her urgently. “Rowan is here, too.”

“How do you do it?” She whispered, inhaling his familiar, earthy scent.

“You just do,” he told her simply. “Come on. Walking around will help.”

“I don’t want to pay my respects to my memories,” she told him a little bitterly, but he was using his superior strength to pull her up.

“This isn’t a museum, Ari,” he said with an eyeroll. She couldn’t help but laugh.

“Mausoleum, I think you mean,” she corrected. He smiled a little.

“Museum, mausoleum, what’s the difference?” He asked her as they walked through her office and made their way down the stairs to her classroom. She paused for a moment, thinking about all the teachers who passed through here. Barnaby sat down in his familiar desk in the back of the room. He’d always sat exactly center, next to another Slytherin named Liz. Ari had been a second row to the left kind of girl, always parked next to Rowan even though Rowan was not a good partner to have in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Still, deciding she’d let Barnaby drag her down into nostalgia, she sat in her old seat, too.

“Remember Rakepick?” He asked suddenly, flooding Ari’s mind with the first unforgivable curse she’d ever been forced to witness.

“How could I forget?” She asked, her words laced with venom.

“You can’t be any worse than her,” he said, his chair scraping against the floor. It was time to keep going.

“High praise,” she retorted dryly as they made their way toward the Artefact room. Barnaby said little, maybe worried that someone might notice them together again or maybe he had nothing to say. She opened the handle to the door once they arrived and inhaled deeply, her mood lifting a little. She could see her and Penny brewing countless potions in this space. On one of the cabinets, two T’s were carved into the wood. Tulip and Tonks had used that cabinet to hide their pranking supplies. Ben had come here to hide when he was afraid. She’d come here to hide, too.

“Me and Rowan used to come in here sometimes…” Barnaby said, obviously remembering different things. Ari sighed with mock annoyance.

“You and Charlie never used this place?” He asked with surprise.

“We used the Room of Requirement,” she said after a moment.

“That would have been a better space,” he agreed as they walked out and made their way to the courtyard towards the familiar, inkstained stones where she’d challenged him many times in a gobstone game.

“This is where Charlie asked me to marry him,” she told him after a minute. “Right before we opened that last vault.”

“We have to protect all of this,” Barnaby told her, his easy going expression changing to one more serious. He was more adult now, a man she didn’t recognize. “We aren’t the only ones who have memories all over this castle.”

“I know,” she told him.

“We’re supposed to be meeting Snape right now,” he said, glancing up towards the clock. “But I wanted to remind you what’s at stake for us, personally.”

“He’s going to be angry,” Ari said, her stomach lurching with fear. Barnaby shrugged.

“He should get used to that.” His tone implied that Barnaby’s presence here was every bit as unwilling as Ari’s. Barnaby had loved Hagrid. Hagrid, unlike most of the people at Hogwarts, had really taken an interest in Barnaby and helped nurture his love of magical creatures. It must have felt like pure betrayal to replace him.

Ari didn’t ask Barnaby any of this as Barnaby led them towards the Great Hall. He was right, they were late and the fury seethed off of Snape. She started to offer an excuse but the sight of the muscle jumping in Barnaby’s jaw stopped her.

“So nice of you two to join us,” Snape said softly. Barnaby moved away from her and towards Rowan, who glanced at Ari, her expression apprehensive. Clearly, Ari realized as Sprout looked at her with horror, Snape had not shared his hiring choice with everyone. She recognized so many of the old faculty, which made her feel both relief and terror. She was not worthy of standing among them.

There were two people she didn’t immediately recognize. A man, who was staring at her openly, with a doughy face that didn’t match the leanness of his body. His hair was sandy and his entire appearance suggested he didn’t wash very frequently. Next to him was a woman who could have been his twin were he not a man, with the same dirty, lank hair and strangely round face on a thin body. The woman didn’t seem as interested in her as he was and she broke the eye contact they’d been making uncomfortably.

Snape was in the middle of a little speech about obeying the rules and keeping the children in line for their own safety. Did he realize, she wondered absently, her fear giving way to anger, that the danger came from him and not anyone else?

“In the interim,” Snape continued, cutting through her thoughts, “You will recognize we have several new faculty members,” he gestured towards her and Barnaby without introducing them. Ari was grateful for that. “Alecto and Amycus will serve as Deputy Headmaster and Mistress as well,” he droned on as Ari’s eyes cut over to McGonagall who kept her chin up defiantly and gave no indication that this bothered her.

“Amycus will also be assisting Ms. Young with Defense Against the Dark Arts,” he continued to Ari’s surprise. “Offering practical application that the course has lacked. Alecto will-“

Ari and Amycus’ eyes met again and this time she felt uncomfortable with the way he was watching her, as if she were some kind of curiosity. What did he know about her? Her name had been in the papers, courtesy of Rita Skeeter, which had always infuriated her. Did he read about her, or was his knowledge more intimate? This was her ever present concern- how much did the death eaters really know about her and her brother? Was she here because they knew she’d attempted to stop Voldemort from rising to power?

She kept their gaze locked, unwilling to be the first one to break just in case he did know about Jacob, and how Jacob died. He should know, she thought to herself, that she wasn’t afraid of them. If she could oversee the death of her brother, she certainly could oversee his. She chose to gloss over the fact that Jacob came within moments of killing her, and was only thwarted by a well-timed defensive spell, courtesy of Bill Weasley and a cursed shore line. Trivial, she thought before Snape’s voice jerked her out of her thoughts.

“-Dementors,” he continued. Finally, she broke eye contact with Amycus to look at Snape with horror. “It will be your job to remind the students what breaking the rules, sneaking out of the castle, or violating the curfew really means for them. Dementors do not understand pleading and offer no mercy.”

He had brought dementors to a school? She opened her mouth, prepared to protest this, but a quick look from Barnaby stopped her. She swallowed her anger, clenching her teeth together tightly in an effort to keep herself from exploding all over the room. Hogwarts, it seemed, was now a prison. Snape finished, though Ari heard none of what he said over the roaring of blood in her ears. The other teachers were storming out and she wanted to catch up with Rowan and ask what the hell had happened, since Rowan was technically a full-time teacher before the madness began.

Ari had almost caught Rowan, who was walking slow on purpose, when a hand grabbed her wrist and turned her around. Amycus was mere inches from her, directly in her personal space. His hand was warm and clammy and just the feeling of his skin on hers repulsed her. She jerked her hand back instinctually. Up close, he was somehow worse than before and if he were any other man, she might have felt bad about picking apart his appearance the way she was. Technically, outside of aesthetics, there was nothing wrong with him. So, what if his face was strangely round but his body was lean? That wasn’t a crime, unless the face was part of the fascist regime that had overtaken her country currently and threatening the lives of her friends and families. Her fingers curled into a fist and she had to fight back the urge to punch his stupid, ugly face.

“Ariadne,” he began in a reedy tone that made her recoil internally. The back of her neck felt hot under his gaze, but her spine was cold, and it took everything in her to exhale slowly, fighting back the bile rising in her throat. Her name sounded like poison in his mouth. “I thought we could get together and plan our lessons since-“

“Can you not do it yourself?” She interrupted coldly, desperate to end this interaction.

His mouth flopped open like a fish out of water. He had clearly not expected her response which was curious to her. Were the other teachers being kind of him? He wasn’t a peer, she thought, certain that people like McGonagall and Sprout would feel the same disdain for him that she did. She was willing to bet she could duel circles around him, and while she was certainly not the most qualified person to be teaching young people, she was definitely more competent than him.

“How will I know what you’re teaching?” He asked with genuine confusion.

“From the text book we share?” She asked, wondering if anyone could be so dense. He’d picked the book out himself and sent it to all the students to purchase. She’d spent part of her free time at home reading through it and making notes, trying to ignore that it was mainly the darker part of the dark arts, with a real revisionist history in certain places.

“I didn’t read that,” he said dismissively. Ari nearly choked on the air she was breathing. How could Snape ever have chosen this guy to teach anyone? Did the death eaters lack standards? For one wild moment she imagined that Amycus was the most qualified candidate, somehow a genius among them. She shook her head softly.

“Maybe you should, then,” she retorted before stepping around him. She refused to look at him again, though she could feel his eyes on her back as she walked away. It wasn’t until she was safely down a corridor that she exhaled, almost in a panic. What had she agreed to?

\--

Part of the allure of Romania, Charlie thought with slight irritation, was the ability to be far away from everyone. He knew, realistically, that most of his bad mood stemmed from seeing his wife off with the knowledge he might never see her again. The last thing he needed was his older brother, moralizing at him in his kitchen. Didn’t Bill have his own family to harass? Who cared if Ben didn’t want to flee into hiding? Bill had appointed himself dad of the world and Charlie was not in the mood for it today.

“Ben is a grown man,” Charlie snapped, interrupting Bill’s rant. “If he wants to stay, I don’t see how that’s my business.”

“He could die,” Bill repeated as if everyone around him was too stupid to understand. Charlie just shrugged.

“He could. I reckon he understands the risks.”

Bill exhaled with a frustration Charlie understood all too well. “I feel like I’m the only person taking any of this seriously!”

“You’re not,” Charlie said, sinking into a kitchen chair, suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion. Was it time for bed yet? He looked up at a pacing Bill, wondering how he might get him out of his house the fastest. “Everyone is taking risks.”

“Unnecessary risks,” Bill amended.

“If everyone took off at the first sign of danger, no one would be left to fight this war,” Charlie reminded him. “You need to let Ben go. Focus on Fleur-“

“She’s pregnant,” Bill suddenly confessed, looking stricken. “I don’t know how it happened; we are usually so careful…”

Bill’s obsessing suddenly made sense. Charlie pushed out another chair next to him inviting Bill to sit. His older brother did, as if in a daze, his head resting in his hands. “How am I supposed to bring a baby into all of this?”

“Is Fleur upset?” Charlie asked, trying to feel out how best to respond to his brother’s news about a new niece or nephew. Personally, Charlie thought it was excellent news. A tiny bright spot in an endless sea of shit.

“She’s happy. I’m happy, damnit!” Bill said, leaning back in the chair while running a hand threw his hair. “This is what I’ve dreamt of my whole life. Fatherhood. The timing feels wrong and I feel like I’ve failed her by asking her to be a mother now instead of sometime safer. I should have been more careful.”

“You can’t plan these things,” Charlie told Bill gently. “And a baby is always good news. You should be excited.”

“It feels wrong to feel happy when so much bad is going on,” Bill confided.

“You should take whatever happiness you can get, especially now. Don’t let you-know-who steal everything.”

Bill sighed, leaning forward again. “You’re right. I’m just scared.”

“Well you should be. Fatherhood is a huge deal. There are so many ways to mess up a baby.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Bill told Charlie with a frown. “You never wanted to be a dad?”

Charlie shrugged. “I’ve got my dragons.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

Charlie frowned. “Are you suggesting babies d _on’t_ breathe fire?”

“I’m one hundred percent suggesting that. And you’ve been exceptionally careful, or your marriage is…different…than mine…”

Charlie’s good mood evaporated at Bill’s insinuation that he and Ari weren’t together often enough to get pregnant. Their marriage, like all marriages, had issues. He spent a lot of time with his dragons, maybe more than he should. Ari didn’t like all the cats he kept bringing home and she told everything to Rowan, even embarrassing things he sometimes wished she’d keep to herself. However, their sex life was absolutely not, and never had been, a problem. At least half of his top ten moments involved her in varying states of undress.

“Do you want to have this conversation? I don’t have any shame; I’ll have this conversation with you.” Charlie threatened.

“I’m just surprised I was first, that’s all.”

“We talked about it once and we both agreed we didn’t want kids,” Charlie said curtly, annoyed at Bill’s prying.

“When?”

Charlie fidgeted uncomfortably. “At…school.”

“So, you were seventeen when you decided you never wanted kids and didn’t bother to update the conversation? What if she wants kids now?”

“You’ve met Ari,” Charlie told Bill as a headache began to form between his eyes. “If she wants something, she’s not shy about asking. Having a baby is not exactly conducive to curse breaking, the true love of her life. What was I supposed to do? Ask her to give it all up so she could stay home and raise babies?”

It was Bills turn to shrug. “It’s not like being a stay at home mom is her only option but if you don’t want kids then you don’t want kids. It would make me feel better if someone was doing this with me. I feel like I’m going into this blind.”

Charlie put his hand on his brothers’ arm. “You’re going to be fine.”

He didn’t let himself explore Bill’s pushy questions until well after Bill was gone. He waited until it was too dark to do anything except crawl into bed to go down the path Bill had presented to him. Did he want kids? No, he thought with certainty. And definitely not right now. Children complicated things. He could get away with eighteen-hour days with his dragons when it was just Ari at home. After all, when things were normal, she could be gone for days at a time. They’d always been fairly independent in their relationship.

He pulled the blanket up around his body, his body protesting at the cold. Ari had taken their blanket and he’d been forced to trudge into town and purchase another one, or sleep under the one Ari kept in a basket downstairs for when it was cold, and she wanted to curl up on the couch in the winter. An image of little, chubby legs running through the house floated into his mind. Ari, sitting on the floor stacking blocks. Him, introducing the small, ginger haired child to the dragons.

He sighed, irritated with Bill for putting the idea in his mind. Not everyone needed to be a parent to fulfill them. He was more than happy to be a fun uncle. He rolled on his side, reaching out instinctively for a body that wasn’t there. He’d settle, for now, at having his wife back.

\--

Tulip knew she shouldn’t get involved in Tonks’ personal life, but it was embarrassing that Remus had been gone for so long. It was cowardly, too, she thought furiously, as she penned another angry letter. A baby wasn’t a death sentence for Merlin’s sake. He should be excited- it wasn’t every day that a man became a father. She personally would love to have children, once the war was over and things settled down a little. Her and Penny had been seriously discussing adoption before things all turned to the current nightmare she was living.

Penny. Penny was in Hogsmeade, at the request of Charlie Weasley. Tulip could have murdered Charlie when Penny sent the too cheerful letter. It never would have happened if she’d been there. Penny was too sentimental, too willing to help someone out. Too Hufflepuff, Tulip thought darkly. Ari didn’t need help from anyone, let alone Penny. She would be just fine on her own. Besides, Barnaby and Rowan were already there. Ari and Rowan had always been the dream team and Baranby was good in a pinch, though not the brightest. What did Charlie expect Penny to do?

Tulip’s quill faltered. She knew what Charlie expected. He’d expect everyone to do what they’d done in school and be willing to sacrifice anything for Ari. Hadn’t they all been like that? Open cursed vaults, fight dragons and boggarts and literal you-know-who and devil may care what the danger was? They’d been stupid, back then. Impulsive. Things were different now and if Penny got caught up in one of Ari’s schemes, she’d personally murder Charlie herself.

It was hard to feel any real malice towards him, though, she thought as she went back to her letter to Remus. Wouldn’t she have asked the same thing? And it did make her feel a little better knowing that Penny was surrounded by the old crowd while she was away. She planned to leave sooner than Christmas, already chafing under the Tonks’ hospitality. Tonks swung between blithe optimism and terrible depression as she made her way through her pregnancy, some days convinced Remus would walk through the door at any minute and certain he was never coming back and had never loved her.

Tulip missed Sirius terribly when Tonks became depressed. He’d know what to do or what to say in order to get Remus home. Hell, anyone would probably be better at getting Remus home than her. She wasn’t exactly touchy-feely. It was still a miracle that she’d ever convinced Penny to marry her, or even date her. Though, to be fair, it had been Penny who’d made the first move. Tulip hadn’t really had to do anything. It had started over the summer of their sixth year. As usual, they were worrying about Ari since no one had heard anything from her after the whole dragon fiasco. Tulip had invited Penny to her house for a couple days at the beginning of the holiday. Tulip had bee nervous because no one knew she was gay, but her and Penny had been closer than any one else in the group and Tulip desperately wanted to tell someone.

Ari, of course, was missing and she never really trusted Rowan. Rowan couldn’t keep a secret from Ari, anyway, so it made sense to just tell Ari herself. It had been Tulips original plan because she knew Ari was incapable of being judgmental. She’d brought Barnaby, after all, into their friend group. And, no offense to Charlie, but she’d married the weird Weasley when she probably could have had Bill, who Tulip had thought for years made way more sense, personality wise. But Ari hadn’t been available, so Penny it was.

It had been the most terrifying sentence she’d ever uttered. Tulip set her quill down as she reflected on that day.

_Warm air fluttered in through an open window as Penny stood in a beam of sunlight, smiling brightly at Tulip. Tulip couldn’t relax, her stomach in knots. The most popular girl in Hogwarts was in her bedroom, looking like human perfection and Tulip was about to confess she liked girls. Her crush on Penny would remain a secret, she thought desperately to herself. She knew there was no way in hell Penny would reciprocate, since Penny dated boys exclusively and had been for as long as Tulip knew her._

_“I was thinking,” Penny continued, still thinking about Ari. “Maybe we could-“_

_“I like girls,” Tulip blurted out gracelessly. Penny’s focus was entirely on her now, one hand flying up to one of her perfect braids._

_“Like…like like?” Penny asked slowly, nervously tugging on the braid. “Or you just think boys are stupid?”_

_“Boys are stupid,” Tulip said fiercely. “But I like…like...girls. I always have.”_

_“How do you know?” Penny asked, sitting on the navy-blue bed spread that Tulip was sitting on. Feeling relieved that Penny was repulsed, Tulip relaxed a little._

_“I don’t know. I just know. I’ve always known.”_

_“You never liked boys?” Penny pressed. “Not even like…Bill?”_

_Tulip rolled her eyes. “Bill is good looking. I have eyes, after all. He just doesn’t do anything for me.”_

_“He doesn’t do anything for me either,” Penny confessed, confusing Tulip. Surely not every girl in the world was interested in Bill Weasley. Sure, he was good looking in terms of just proportions. He had nice facial structure, good hair, and a certain charm that even she enjoyed being around. Not everyone liked him, though. Ari, for one, somehow seemed oblivious to Bill’s outward appearance. Ari, the blind idiot, was blind to all boys who were very clearly interested in her, like Bill’s younger brother who watched her with literal heart eyes. She was a bad example. Didn’t Rowan notice Bill? Rowan was more perceptive._

_But Penny was smarter, Tulip decided. Rowan was book smart but not exactly people smart. Penny understood human nature. If she wasn’t into Bill, maybe he wasn’t as attractive as Tulip assumed, he was._

_“I keep trying to like boys,” Penny continued, pulling Tulip out of her thoughts. “But it never works for me. It’s confusing. They’re cute, right? But girls can be cute, too.”_

_Tulips mouth felt dry. What was Penny saying? “I mean…anyone can be cute I guess?”_

_“Do you remember last year, when Tonks locked us in that broom closet?”_

_Tulips brain nearly exploded as she reflected on that painful memory. Penny, like Bill, had always just been a cute person in her life she never thought much about. Unlike Bill, however, Penny was a girl who, for three solid hours, had been locked in a two by two closet with her when Tonks had sealed them in a broom closet as a prank. They’d been so close they were touching and it’s when Tulips crush on Penny really began. It had been a disappointment when Ben had found and rescued them._

_“Yeah,” Tulip said softly as Penny scooted a little closer._

_“I thought…when we were in there…that it might have been nice if you had kissed me.”_

_Tulip thought she must be hallucinating. She looked over at Penny, who looked scared, her blue eyes wide with fear. Was she afraid that Tulip might reject her? Or just afraid to be admitting this out loud. “I think…I think I might like it better if it were you kissing me than a boy.”_

_“I could kiss you if you want,” Tulip said hoarsely, unable to believe this was really happening. “Just so you know.”_

_Penny nodded, scooting so close their pinkies were touching. Barely able to breathe, Tulip moved her face closer to Penny’s, closing her eyes and pressing her lips against hers. Penny’s mouth was soft, just like she imagined, and Penny herself smelled like vanilla and freesia. The kiss itself was chaste. Tulip was too afraid of rejection to let herself be totally vulnerable in the kiss._

_“Was it okay?” Tulip asked._

_“It would have been better if you hadn’t stopped,” Penny said a little breathlessly. Tulip couldn’t contain her grin as she moved towards Penny again, this time with less hesitation._

Tulip sighed at the memory. Could she leave Tonks alone and rejoin Penny? Yes, she decided. If she didn’t, she’d go crazy.

She decided she’d finish her letter, first, and maybe another one if Remus ignored this one, too. Just to be safe. They all needed a little happiness in these dark times.

\--

“What did Amycus want?” Rowan asked, catching up with Ari outside the castle grounds. Darkness was approaching, along with Snape’s new curfew.

Ari looked behind her to see her best friend standing a few feet behind her, looking apprehensive. She sighed and walked towards Rowan, pulling her into a too tight hug. It felt good to be talking to her again. This war had separated them for too long, depriving Ari of the oldest friend she’d ever had.

“I missed you,” Ari told her once they broke apart and began walking back into the castle. “It feels like forever.”

“I know,” Rowan said ruefully. “I hate it.”

“At least we have each other here, right?” Ari asked, hopeful that Rowan wasn’t planning to keep her distance here, too. Rowan nodded fiercely.

“Yes, absolutely. It would be suspicious, I think, if we weren’t friends here. What did Amycus want?”

Ari rolled her eyes. “To plan lessons together. He picked out a text book but didn’t bother to read it, the complete idiot.”

“Are you going to?” Rowan asked, her forehead creased.

Ari shook her head. “I’m not going to do anything for a Carrow.”

“That seems to be the prevailing opinion,” Rowan confided. “But I wonder if it won’t backfire on us.”

“What is Amycus going to do?”

“Tell Snape, who is much more skilled than you,” Rowan said quickly, having obviously given this some thought.

“Do you think Snape knows about what happened with Jacob?” Ari asked suddenly, stopping them both in a hallway. Rowan shook her head fiercely.

“No. No one seems to know, or, at least, no one that Barnaby knows…knows.”

Ari let out a frustrated, noisy sigh. “Then why am I here?”

Rowan shrugged helplessly as they continued to meander back towards Ari’s classroom. “I don’t understand that, either. Maybe Snape thinks this will keep the Weasley’s in line? Having one of them in the castle?”

“But he’s already got Ginny,” Ari said a little helplessly.

“So, he’s got both daughters, then. Or maybe he thinks you were going to be more trouble this year? Or…maybe he just needed someone to counterbalance Carrow.”

“Maybe this is just all one, big cosmic joke that I don’t understand,” Ari muttered darkly. Rowan, having reached the outside of Ari’s classroom, caught her forearm.

“Things are different now and you have to be careful,” she warned, her dark eyes serious. “It’s not like when Dumbledore was here. We have to be careful…you have to be careful. They’ll be looking for any excuse to get rid of us, and especially you. With Carrow teaching this class too…you’ll have to swallow a lot of stuff that you won’t like, but you have to. There will be little kids here tomorrow, Ari. Promise me, no matter what happens or how much you hate it, you’ll suck it up to keep the kids safe.”

“I promise,” Ari told Rowan with sincerity. “It’s just a year, right?”

Rowan didn’t respond as she walked away, leaving Ari afraid that Rowan didn’t really believe any of this would be resolved in a year. This might be the next five years of her life. She took a deep breath and walked back towards her room, resolved that she’d do what she had to end this and get back home.

 

 


	4. Dew on the VIne

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm dumping like four chapters into this at once. In my defense...I wrote them like, a month ago and then got distracted by the warm weather and should have spaced them out like a normal person.  
> I will do better in the future!

_Born to break or to last, is it all in the past?_

_Is that a scar or a birthmark?_

_Retracing this cold heart and now I'm all out of thread and I don't want to die here_

_Keep chasing echoes in my mind, babe it's a fine line and I'm so far over it_

_And I know it_

_Beneath it all it's still broken_

_Cut me out, cut it open, I can't do it anymore._

_I can't do it anymore_

_I don't pay any mind to the dew upon the vine_

_Does that mean that it's not there if I can't see it at all?_

_Though the morning light will burn away all the fog the night creates_

_There'll still be a trace of our love left behind_

_In the dew upon the vine_

 

Ari watched the smallest group of first year’s filter into the great hall, prepared to be sorted. No student who couldn’t produce proof of their magical heritage was allowed into Hogwarts, so no muggle borns at all, and some half-blood students as well. She scanned the room, looking for familiar ginger hair, finding it in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Ginny was watching her with defiant blue eyes. Ari breathed out quietly, grateful to see a face she recognized among a sea of nervous faces. Ari didn’t let her expression betray her, keeping her face neutral but she held Ginny’s gaze until the sorting hat began to sing. Amycus was offering commentary about any house that wasn’t Slytherin- loudly- and everyone was openly staring. Even Snape looked irritated, though he wasn’t saying anything.

The ceremony was painful and robbed all the students of the excitement of pride that came from being sorted into a house. Ari tried not to reflect on her own sorting, but it had been one of her better moments at Hogwarts. It had solidified that she belonged somewhere and had introduced her to her core group of friends: Rowan, Penny, and Tonks. Amycus and Alecto seemed determined to ensure that only Slytherin’s were allowed any joy from their sorting.

Snape stood and began his spiel, warning the students of the rules he’d already shared with the staff. Ari’s stomach, already in knots, fell out when he began describing the punishments that would be returning to Hogwarts. Unable to keep the horror off her face, she listened in disbelief as Snape detailed the possibilities, which were broad and open ended and most concerning, left to the discretion of the Carrows. Next to her, Barnaby grabbed her leg and began digging his nails into the skin, which helped get her emotions in check.

How could she keep anyone safe if anything was fair game and the arbiters of punishment decisions was left up to the Carrows, two people who she wasn’t entirely sure were altogether literate. They looked pleased as peacocks as they stared out at the students, two sociopaths who now had complete control of the school.

“Your face is giving you away,” Barnaby hissed at Ari once food appeared. The usual chatter that accompanied the feast was missing, though the Slytherin’s by and large didn’t seem to have as much trouble talking amongst each other as the other tables did. Ari found Ginny again, furiously whispering to a brown-haired boy next to her and Ari’s anxiety amped up another notch. She set her fork down next to her plate, too sick to eat.

“Is this a school or a torture camp?” She whispered back, looking away from Ginny but unable to meet Barnaby’s gaze.

“You knew this wasn’t going to be a picnic,” he reminded her. She looked up, wanting to find comfort in Barnaby’s familiar gaze but instead found Amycus watching her carefully, his eyes narrowed slightly. She hated how often she found him watching her. She looked back for a beat longer than she would have preferred, if for no other reason than to show him she wasn’t afraid of him before she went back to her plate.

Barnaby said nothing else to her for the rest of the meal, somehow able to eat without issue. She wondered if, because he’d been playing this part for so long already, it just felt normal to him. Ari didn’t how anyone could find any normalcy in it, but she needed to try if she was going to make it through this year without losing her mind. She pushed her food around her plate, trying to give it the appearance of having eaten without actually eating.

They couldn’t leave until students were dismissed, a moment that felt like eternity. She watched the new Hufflepuffs file out, her heart wrenching a little as she noted how little they looked. Like babies, really. They didn’t belong here, in this place. None of the kids did, to be honest. What would happen to them?

She practically jumped out of her chair, making a beeline for her room where she could cry and scream and maybe even vomit a little, all without an audience. Like always, Amycus was right behind her, ever present.

“Is it true you married a Weasley?” He asked once he caught up with her, wheezing a little.

“I can’t imagine how that might be even a little relevant,” she snapped, desperate to be away from Amycus. Her lungs felt constricted and at any moment she was going to start dry heaving all over his feet if he did not get out of her way.

“So, you regret it,” he said with a weird, twisted smile. “Makes sense.”

“Amycus, if you’ll excuse me,” Ari gasped, stepping past him and practically running to her room. She only just made it before she emptied her stomach into the toilet, overwhelmed with the turn of events from dinner. She let herself sink onto the cold, stone floor, pressing her face against a wall as she reminded herself to just breathe. She had worked herself up and if she couldn’t get a hold on her emotions she’d be useless to everyone, including herself.

She needed to remind herself that she was a Young. She was the cursed girl. She could handle this, just like she’d handled everything else. She hadn’t lost it over Jacob, had she? No, she’d let Barnaby drain her of almost all her blood and met him on their childhood island. The Carrows couldn’t touch Jacob in terms of how much he terrified her.

She inhaled and exhaled slowly but didn’t move from the bathroom floor. She stayed there until her stomach settled, daydreaming about better times. She kept picturing Charlie in her mind, focusing on his face. Eyes closed, she imagined the sharpness of his jaw line and how his hair was always in his eyes. She tried, for a while, to count all the freckles on his face from memory but she couldn’t. She thought about the sound of his laugh and how easy he smiled, even when he was mad. She could almost hear him, telling her excitedly about something new that had happened with one of his dragons and how his hands would be waving around his face because no part of him could stand still when he was excited. She thought of his chest and how it rose and fall slowly as he slept and how, no matter where they started in the bed, she always woke up to him wrapped around her.

It helped, and she managed to drag herself off the hard, stone floor and into the four-poster bed that was now her refuge. She pulled her blanket over her face and inhaled, reveling in the smell of home and willed herself into sleep. She, mercifully, dreamt of nothing she remembered when she woke, and decided to skip breakfast in preparation for her first class of the day. She’d packed an array of nice dresses to wear all in bright colors to keep her spirits up. She left her hair loose to tumble softly down her back. She was supposed to have second year Hufflepuffs first, which would be a nice ice breaker into teaching. She knew her group of Hufflepuffs would be understanding if she was a disaster.

With high spirits, she almost bounced down the stairs into her classroom, stopping cold on the second to last step. Amycus, as always, was waiting for her. She regretted putting on her sunshine yellow dress the minute she saw his eyes narrow at her appearance. He, as usual, was in black which made him look swallow. She wondered if there were rules on what death eaters could and could not wear, or if they were just all naturally drawn to black.

“Can I help you, Amycus?” Ari asked, taking the final two steps onto the floor. She tried to conceal her hesitation as best she could, but Amycus made her uneasy.

“I think,” he began, closing the gap between them. Her mind flashed back to the night before when he’d asked if she regretted marrying Charlie, but she stuffed it deep down. The less Amycus knew about her, the better. “Focusing on the Dark Arts is more important than defending against them.”

Ari frowned a little. “But won’t they need to know how to fight back?” She asked, wondering how best to phrase the question. “Against resistance fighters?”

Her question seemed to answer something he was thinking because his expression smoothed out and he visibly relaxed. “I’ll worry about that,” he told her, taking another step closer. His hand twitched but didn’t move any closer, for which she was thankful. “You worry about theory and I’ll worry about application.”

She forced a smile. “You know best.” It sounded more sarcastic than she meant, but he didn’t seem to notice it. A strange, gross smile bloomed on his face. He reached into his robes and she took an instinctive step backwards but instead of his wand, he pulled out a letter.

“This came for you today,” he told her a little ruefully, handing it to her. She gingerly accepted it.

“Did you open it?” She asked with a tinge out outrage. The seal was broken, and some hasty, half-hearted attempt had clearly been made to conceal the fact. He seemed almost embarrassed.

“I have to check all the mail,” he told her in a half mumble. Ari filed that piece of information away, deciding she needed to figure out a way to tell Charlie that the Carrow’s were reading all incoming mail.

“Outgoing, too?” She asked as she re-broke the seal. He nodded, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d think he was a little ashamed. She glanced down at the parchment in her hand and saw Penny’s familiar, looping handwriting but didn’t read it, aware that Amycus was still watching her. She opened her mouth, unsure of what she was going to say when Barnaby strode in. When he saw Amycus and Ari his posture stiffened, and his face adopted a scowl.

“Carrow,” Barnaby said stiffly. Ari looked from Barnaby to Amycus, who had taken two steps back and had his hand back in his robes.

“Lee,” Amycus sneered back, his ambling from before gone. “How is your wife?”

“How is your sister?” Barnaby shot back; his eyes icy. Ari resisted the urge to let Amycus know he’d just been burned, biting a smile as Amycus turned back to face her, nodded slightly, and then swooped out.

“What was he doing in here?” Barnaby asked once Amycus was long gone.

She held up her open letter. “He was here to let me know he was going through my mail. I think he’s trying to subtly let me know he doesn’t trust me,” she confessed, moving to sit on top of her desk. Barnaby shook his head.

Barnaby’s frown deepened. “Why do you think that?”

“He’s always bothering me about what I plan to teach, for one. And last night he wanted to know if I regretted marrying Charlie.”

“And you think that he’s doing that because he’s suspicious of you?” Barnaby asked her slowly, as if she were a child.

“Obviously. I’m the cursed girl, remember?”

“And I’m sure it has nothing to do with you being a young, beautiful woman,” Barnaby retorted with uncharacteristic sarcasm.

“You think Amycus has a crush on me?” Ari asked as her stomach twisted again.

“I think,” Barnaby said, closing the gap between them so he could take one of Ari’s hands. “That if he does, you need to be really, really careful. Men like Amycus think they can have whatever they want.”

“I’m married,” Ari whispered, recoiling slightly at Barnaby’s tone. Barnaby dropped her hand.

“To a blood traitor,” Barnaby reminded her. “And if you don’t think there isn’t a death eater alive who wouldn’t love to kill a Weasley-“

“I’m a Weasley,” she interrupted, her voice quavering at a whisper.

“No. You’re a Young here.”

“Why are you here, Barnaby?” Ari finally asked, shaking her head. She wasn’t dealing with this. Not today.

“I was coming to see if you were going to have dinner with Penny and Andre tonight,” he told her, indicating towards the letter in her hand. “We can walk down together if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” she agreed, hoping off her desk, her stomach settling.

Barnaby left as her students began filing in, leaving her no time to reflect on anything he said. She preferred it that way, as everything he said filled her with dread. If she was somehow giving Amycus the idea that she might be available to him, she needed to correct that. She had come here scared and weepy instead of strong and confident. As she moved through her classes she willed herself to channel her inner seventeen year old, the girl who was still sure that the world would somehow end up right.

For the most part, her students were compliant and mostly uninterested in what she had to say. She’d tailored her lessons depending on the grade level and focused mostly on creatures instead of specific spells, since Amycus had made it very clear he would be dealing with that aspect of the class. It wasn’t until her last class of the afternoon, sixth year Gryffindors, that her plans flew out the window.

Ginny was sitting in the front row, book closed shut in front of her, and the moment Ari stood in front of the class, Ginny’s hand shot in the air.

“Yes, Ginny?” Ari asked.

“I heard that you can block spells without saying anything. Is that true?”

Ari narrowed her eyes at Ginny, who was staring back at her innocently as if she’d never seen Ari and Bill mock duel on the Burrow front lawn a million times.

“Many experienced witches and wizards can do wordless spells, yes, it’s a skill-“

“How?” Ginny pressed, cutting Ari off. Ari looked around the room to see all the Gryffindors leaning forward in their chairs with interest. None of her other classes had shown her as much attention as she was getting in this first minute.

“Well,” Ari began carefully, aware that one of them could rat her out to one of the Carrow’s. “As many of you probably know, wands choose the wizard. You have a connection with your wand, it works best for you and as you learn together it begins to almost…anticipate you. It just takes training and practice to learn to think the spell in your mind and have your wand respond. It’s an incredibly advanced skill, many wizards and witches never manage it.”

“Will we be learning it this year?” A blonde boy from the back asked. Ari sighed softly.

“No. I am going to be teaching you about grindylows, if you want to open your books to page twelve…” the class collectively groaned, grudgingly opening their books and taking notes as she began lecturing. Crisis adverted, she thought with some satisfaction. She’d hopefully given Ginny enough information to learn to do it herself without making it seem like she was offering them anything useful at all. After all, it really was something you either could or couldn’t do. Better witches and wizards could, sure, but she was certain that even the most talented among them struggled. Rowan, for one, had only mastered it long after they left Hogwarts and had the benefit of Barnaby living with her, a certified genius in all things defensive magic.

When the class ended, Ginny lingered behind. “Are you okay?” Ari asked her as the young ginger made her way towards her. Ari was especially fond of Ginny, whom she had watched grow up from a little baby to the young woman in front of her. Ginny was like a little sister, one that had played many pranks on Ari as she grew up.

“Yeah,” Ginny told her with an aura of self-confidence Ari was jealous of. “Is it really that easy though?”

“Why do you want to learn this?” Ari asked a little suspiciously.

Ginny shrugged. “I should be able to defend myself, right?”

“I promised your mom to keep an eye on you,” Ari reminded Ginny, who scoffed at the idea.

“Mum should know better by now. Please. You’ll help me, right?”

“Do you know how to do a Patronus Charm?” Ari asked Ginny suddenly. To her surprise, Ginny nodded though she winced a little, as if the memory pained her.

“Harry taught us last year,” she said, some of her bravado leaving her voice. Ari nodded, aware of Ginny’s feelings for Harry. Who wasn’t, in their family? Ginny had never tried to conceal them. With him missing, Ginny must be a nervous wreck.

“So, you know that you need to feel it or it doesn’t work,” Ari continued, deciding that she wouldn’t push about Harry. If Ginny wanted to talk to her about that, she knew where Ari was.

Ginny nodded.

“It’s the same concept. Start with a spell you can do well, something simple, and work your way from there. Once you get the feel of it down it gets a lot easier.”

Ginny’s smile let up her pretty face, which gave her first real sense of satisfaction of the day. “Thank you. And, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. You’re never around anymore.”

“That reminds me! Send your mum a letter and let her know that the Carrow’s are going through the mail. She’ll pass the message along for me. I don’t want a letter from your brother to end up in Amycus’s bloated hands.”

Ginny nodded. “I can do that. You are going to write him, though? Right?”

“Maybe,” Ari confided. “It might be safer if I don’t.”

“People might think you’re ashamed of us,” Ginny said after a moment, making her way towards the door.

“Ginny,” Ari called after her. Ginny paused to look back. “I’m not ashamed.”

Ginny smiled. “Good.”

\--

They walked down while the sun was still bright in the sky and dementors weren’t anywhere to be seen. Hogsmeade itself had changed very little in terms of aesthetics. Everything was exactly as Ari remembered it, though to be fair she’d never paid a lot of attention to the village, who lived there, and all of the shops. She was certain Penny’s Potion Palace, for example, was new. As where all the death eaters standing around everywhere, like the worlds most pathetic guard. Ari, along with Barnaby and Rowan, ignored them and continued walking until they reached Penny’s shop.

A bell jangled over the door, announcing their arrival. Penny was standing at the counter with Andre, having a soft conversation. The shop itself was larger than it’s outside suggested, long and narrow, but deep and the walls were covered floor to ceiling in shelves of potions, all neatly labeled. If Ari had really examined them, she was willing to bet that she would have found them organized by what they did, or their ingredients. Penny was meticulous when it came to potions.

“You got my letter!” Penny exclaimed; her long, blonde hair braided around her head in a crown. “I wasn’t sure what the mail system was like up there.”

“The Carrow’s are going through it,” Barnaby told Penny, offering her a hug.

“I’m going to start sending letters from down here, if you don’t mind,” Ari added, letting Andre pull her into him. Even through his shirt she could feel the hardness of his body, the result of years of professional quidditch playing. Andre, like Ben, had never settled down although unlike Ben, Andre felt no need to because he was considered one of the most handsome men in Britain, and women (and men) were always available to him, if he wanted them.

“Let’s up upstairs,” Penny suggested once they were done greeting each other. “I’ll close up, so no one is tempted to come in.”

“It’s almost like old times,” Rowan commented as they watched Penny change the open sign to closed and lock the front door.

“All that’s missing is Tonks or Tulip setting something on fire,” Andre reminisced as they began climbing up narrow, wooden steps.

“And Bill chastising us for breaking the rule,” Rowan reminded them with a soft sigh.

“Charlie, doodling in a notepad, oblivious to anything happening around us,” Ari said with a smile.

“Don’t forget Ben, nervously hiding from whatever teacher was coming to reprimand us,” Penny added as they entered into her living space above the shop. It was smaller than her home in London, but cozier and without all the campy decorations Tulip tended to add when she was around. Penny had a very minimalist approach when it came to decorating, and everything she did made the little space she had seem brighter and more open. Ari preferred this style, though she said nothing as they filtered into the living room and began jostling for available space on a soft, white couch. Ari found herself sandwiched between Rowan and Andre as Penny grabbed a dining room chair and dragged it in and Barnaby took a matching white chair stuffed in a corner.

“So, for real, how is Hogwarts?” Penny asked once everyone was settled.

“A nightmare,” Ari supplied quickly. “Nothing like it used to be.”

“I wondered what Snape as headmaster might be like,” Andre confessed.

“He’s not even the worst part,” Ari continued as Barnaby shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“It’s the Carrow’s,” Rowan agreed. “They’ve been given runaway power and they’re already using it with reckless abandon. I heard Alecto crucioed a student in class that got too cheeky with her.”

“It’s just the first day,” Penny practically whispered. “And she’s already using an unforgivable curse on a student?”

“The Carrow’s are the worst of the worst,” Barnaby told them, his face serious. “They’re true believers.”

“It’s especially bad for Ari because she has to teach with him,” Rowan told the group, who turned to look at Ari with concern.

“Not with him. Parallel to him. He’s doing practical application and I’m teaching them nothing useful. I did a whole lesson on grindylow’s today.” Ari glanced towards Barnaby, worried he might expand upon his theory to their friends.

“If I were you, I would have told Snape to take a hike,” Andre said confidently. Ari nodded.

“Dumbledore asked me to come back, if the opportunity ever presented itself so I kind of had to.”

“Do you think he knew that Snape was betraying him?” Rowan asked. The air in the room thickened as they all held their breath.

“No,” Barnaby finally said. “I don’t think he knew.”

“I just…I hate Snape so much,” Penny said with venom. Everyone exhaled as if on cue and then nodded in agreement.

“Let’s not talk about Snape,” Rowan pleaded. “Let’s remember fond times…like…”

“Like when Ismelda tried to dose Barnaby with that love potion?” Ari supplied. Penny immediately began laughing as Rowan turned to an embarrassed Barnaby, who had put his hands over his face.

“She did what?! When?” Rowan demanded.

“Did you never tell Rowan about that? Barnaby come on that’s hands down one of my favorite Hogwarts memories,” Penny told Barnaby with glee. “Picture this. Fifth year. We’re trying to get Beatrice out of a painting and the mood is tense. Sir Cadogan, that weird knight painting, is there. Ari is about to try a new spell she learned from a ghost-“

“It was not from a ghost,” Ari interjected but Penny waved her off.

“When Ismelda shows up with a potion for Barnaby to drink. Barnaby, of course, isn’t there although I think he was supposed to be-“

“I got turned around!” Barnaby interrupted indignantly.

“How do you get lost in a place you lived for five years?” Andre asked as Barnaby just shrugged.

“ANYWAY,” Penny continued loudly. “Ismelda, for whatever reason, confesses her plan to make Barnaby fall in love with her to Ari. Ari is trying to talk her out of the plan when bam. Barnaby arrives and hears the entire thing.”

“Its why I started eating at the Hufflepuff table,” Barnaby told Rowan. “I was really afraid she was going to get me.”

“She just wanted you to love her,” Ari said with mock sympathy. “Is that so wrong.”

“Can you imagine Ismelda loving you?” Andre shuddered.

“The only thing I ever saw Ismelda love was killing things,” Penny agreed.

“Things were so different back then,” Rowan sighed fondly. “We got into so many shenanigans. Remember that guy who was obsessed with Ari our third year and Tulip slimed him in his sleep?”

“Um, that guy’s name is Charlie and Ari married him Rowan,” Andre quipped quickly. Laughing, Ari hit Andre playfully with the back of her hand.

“You guys are the worst,” Ari chuckled. “Charlie wasn’t that obvious, was he?”

“You are exceptionally oblivious,” Andre told Ari seriously.

“I never noticed Charlie until he started hanging around us,” Rowan told Ari seriously. “But it was really noticeable once he joined the group full time. He looked at you with hearts in his eyes.”

“Yeah, you almost felt bad for the guy,” Andre agreed. “Except he was like, good looking and sporty and well-liked so maybe not getting the girl he wanted was just the universe balancing itself out.”

“You really never noticed?” Penny asked. “Because you could tell us now.”

Ari shrugged. “Not fourth year…or fifth year, either. I just thought he really liked the forbidden forest.”

“To be fair, he did also like it,” Barnaby told her. “We used to sneak in there sometimes and harass the spiders.”

“Harass?” Rowan challenged, an eyebrow raised.

“Okay fine, we just wanted to say hi. Sometimes we brought them ham.”

“Of COURSE you guys did,” Penny laughed, eyes rolling.

“Wait, so when did you know?” Andre asked with more seriousness than before. “Because we had a bet.”

Ari shot Andre a dirty look. “I don’t know. I guess I knew I had feelings for him after we found that dragon…but I didn’t tell him until the dance sixth year-“

“YOU WHAT?!” Barnaby and Andre shouted.

“I KNEW you cheated!” Andre accused Rowan. “I knew it!”

“I did not cheat! I didn’t know she told him! You never told me that!” Rowan held her hands up defensively as she accused Ari.

“Of course I didn’t tell you guys that,” Ari admitted. “Not with your shitty bet.”

“I won,” Andre said. “I was robbed but I won.”

“You did not. They weren’t together after the dance.”

“Were you secretly together?” Andre demanded.

“No,” Penny said. “We would have known. Ari kept a lot of distance from Charlie after the dance.”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Ari said tartly, “But we were not officially together until that next summer.”

“Semantics,” Andre replied breezily.

“That feels like a lifetime ago,” Penny sighed.

Ari agreed, her thoughts drifting away from the conversation and back to the hot summer day when Charlie kissed her in front of everyone, a declaration that he wouldn’t wait any longer. She wished she could go back to that moment and live in it. They’d all been together then, safe and sound and their worries were small. Had they ever really doubted they would triumph over Jacob? Even in her darkest moments she had been able to hold on to the hope that things would work out.

Ari forced herself back into the moment, grateful that at least the five of them were here, a small miracle. Things felt better today than they had the day before.


	5. Fix Me

_I'm fine in the fire_

_I feed on the friction_

_I'm right where I should be_

_Don't try and fix me_

 

 

If Snape knew he’d physically left the castle grounds, he’d be furious. Barnaby wouldn’t be able to escape whatever punishment Snape dreamed up, which made this venture all the more dangerous. Barnaby had given years of his life to Snape, years he’d never get back even if the war wrapped up with a neat little bow in a couple months. He was bitter about it, selfishly. He’d lost his support network, the only family he’d ever really had, all because Dumbledore came knocking and asked him to. Barnaby had risked everything to get out his sixth year, a fact that no one truly appreciated.

Except Charlie Weasley. Charlie had gone with him and helped him pack, wand clutched in his hand at his side the entire time. As if two school boys could have taken on the Lee patriarchs. The whole thing was almost funny in Barnaby’s mind now, how truly naive they had been. Charlie had stood up with him at his wedding to Rowan, his best man. A brother, really, Barnaby thought angrily as he began cutting a familiar path through the Forbidden Forest. He almost dared a dementor to come for him. He was itching for a fight.

Charlie had let Barnaby work at his dragon sanctuary and provided a reference that had been invaluable to Barnaby. It’s how Barnaby had carved out his own niche as a top magizoologist. It would take him years to rebuild his reputation, he reminded himself angrily. Even with people like Ari and Rowan vouching for him, there would always be a subset of people who didn’t trust him, and who could blame them? If the war ended, he wouldn’t be the only death eater screaming they’d been working for the resistance or had seen the error of their ways.

All so he could, in the end, fail Dumbledore anyway. Everyone had been fed the line that Snape was also a double agent and though Barnaby had never attended a Order meeting so his own cover would remain safe, he believed it too. He saw Snape everywhere back then, prancing around like he owned the place. Barnaby had taken comfort knowing that his old head of house was probably suffering like he was. How wrong he was. Dumbledore had died and Barnaby was trapped, living a double life at the behest of no one, with only a select few aware of what he was really doing.

He made his way to the old cursed vault entrance, the only place on Hogwarts grounds that a person could apparate in and out of. He didn’t think even Ari was aware of that and he had no plans to tell her. She was subtle like a freight train and would get herself killed sneaking out here. This was his private secret, a way to pass any information along if he needed to.

Eyes screwed shut, he ignored the familiar compression feeling that came with apparating, waiting until his lungs re-expanded. Something hadn’t gone right and instead of landing smoothly on his feet he bounced off an invisible wall and slammed onto the ground. Leave it to Ari, he thought miserably, clambering gingerly to his feet, to erect that stupid spell. It didn’t keep anyone out, just prevented people from showing up on her literal doorstep. She’d erected it far enough back, with a warning he assumed, to give her enough time to prepare a defense or flee, depending on the danger.

He crossed the boundary, hopeful that no other traps were waiting him but his foot hit the ground, a worn path between the bouncy grass on either side of it. By the time he got to the door step, Charlie was waiting for him, his freckled face guarded. Barnaby felt a small amount of relief seeing his best friend, even if Charlie didn’t seem thrilled to see him in return.

Charlie took the two steps off the weathered porch and met Barnaby at the bottom. Barnaby hesitated, unsure what to say but Charlie crossed the space between them and clapped him into a hug.

“It’s good to see you,” Charlie told him, breaking apart. “It’s been too long.”

Barnaby nodded in agreement. “I can’t stay long.”

“Long enough to come inside?” Charlie asked, indicating towards the small cabin. Barnaby was tempted, knowing that it would look exactly like he remembered. If he went in he risked never coming out. He’d get caught up in Charlie’s stories about dragons and then roped into seeing them, and the next thing he knew he’d convince himself to stay, leaving Rowan in danger and himself branded a traitor. He shook his head no.

“Our mail is being searched so you should send everything directly to Penny.”

“Got it,” Charlie said. “Is that all?”

Barnaby closed his eyes for a second, wondering how to best deliver this news. “It’s Ari,” he finally said, watching Charlie carefully.

“It always is,” Charlie responded, seeming nonplussed that Barnaby had come all this way to talk about Ari. “What’s she up to?”

“Nothing,” Barnaby said honestly. Charlie seemed surprised to hear that. “She’s being a very subdued version of herself.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“She’s caught the attention of Amycus Carrow and I’m worried about what that might mean for you.”

Charlie’s blue eyes narrowed, his expression hardening instantly. “Caught his attention how?”

“Like a puffskein in a manticore’s grip,” Barnaby told him seriously. “He’s always watching her.”

“Surely he must know she’s married,” Charlie said, his tone on edge as if he were just barely keeping himself under control.

Barnaby shrugged. “To _you_. No one he respects or cares for.”

“Is he going to steal my wife?” Charlie asked after a moment, his face flushing red with anger.

“He wouldn’t be the first death eater to do it. Ari has a good lineage, she’s attractive…she’s the exact kind of wife a death eater would covet.”

“She’d kill him first,” Charlie told Barnaby with conviction.

“I think Ari might do a lot of things if she thought something…or someone…was on the other end of the sacrifice. You need to beef up your security around here. Track down Tulip and have her practice attacking you. Don’t let Carrow within a hundred yards of you.”

“And Ari?” Charlie asked, running a hand through his messy hair.

“I’ll keep an eye on Ari-“

“You?! You’re supposed to be one of them!” Charlie exploded, finally. Barnaby winced at his words, though he couldn’t deny them. What could he really do for Ari if it came down to it?

“I’m not,” Barnaby stressed. “And I would always choose us over them. You can trust me, if it comes down it, I’ve got your back. Just like you’ve always had mine.”

“Ari would go to hell and back for Rowan,” Charlie told Barnaby, but his words were a threat.

“You can trust me,” Barnaby swore. Barnaby turned, heart pounding, to make his way back towards the perimeter but Charlie stopped him.

“Keep Carrow away from my wife!”

Barnaby almost smiled. He had a plan.

 

_Fifth Year, Hogwarts_

Quidditch practice had been a frustrating wash, Charlie thought to himself angrily. He was distracted by Ari, as usual. Typically, Quidditch could clear his mind but not tonight. Ari was certain she’d found the next cursed vault and Rowan had told him earlier that Ari planned to take Barnaby and Bill with her. Why shouldn’t she, he thought with a small amount of self-loathing. Barnaby knew as much about creatures as he did, and probably more dark magic which was always useful in these situations, and Bill…well. Bill was Bill, wasn’t he? Bill had been there since the beginning, unburdened by the sort of insecurities that weighed Charlie down and prevented him from talking to Ari for four years. Bill was handsome and charming and if Charlie had to choose, he’d pick Bill, too.

Everyone else was going to the lockers to change but Charlie wasn’t ready to pack it in and admit defeat. Why not stay out on the pitch and revel in his own misery for a little while longer? It was getting darker and it was just warm enough that the air felt good on his sweaty skin. He was about to mount his broom when a figure in the dark stopped him.

He recognized Emma from their shared common room, and the fact that they had a lot of classes together. They were both fifth years, both Gryffindors, and Emma liked magical creatures like he did. “Hey Charlie,” she waved, stepping into a pink beam from the setting sun. The light caught in her golden hair gave off a diamond effect that was pretty. “I hope you don’t mind that I watched you practice. You’re really good. Hufflepuff doesn’t have a chance this weekend, do they?”

It was unbelievable how well Hufflepuff had done this year, making it all the way to the final game but Emma was right. Their victory against Slytherin had been pure luck, as half the team had been mysteriously cursed with a vomiting sickness (Charlie still thought Tonks was behind that one) and Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff had ended in a massive storm that Hufflepuff somehow managed to play through. It was sure to be a blood bath, though. He’d already instructed the Gryffindors to eat nothing that didn’t come directly off their plates, and the weather was shaping up to be really nice.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he agreed. What was she doing out here? No one watched practices, not even the most die-hard fans.

Emma smiled, her brown eyes bright and hopeful and with a sinking feeling, Charlie recognized what was happening here. Emma wasn’t the first girl, though she might have been the prettiest so far, to be interested in him. For a moment, he wondered what it might be like to be able to let go of his crush on Ari and like another girl. Emma was nice, wasn’t she? And smart, and she liked the same things as he did.

“I was wondering,” Emma began, interrupting his thoughts as she took a step towards him. “If maybe after the game this weekend you’d like to-“

“Charlie!” A familiar voice shouted, a little out of breath. Charlie kept his eyes locked with Emma’s. Emma closed her eyes for a moment, irritation sinking into every line on her face as she took a step back. Charlie exhaled as familiar long, red hair appeared from the shadows. Ari had good timing, didn’t she? “Oh. Am I interrupting something?” Ari tucked a long, red curl behind her ear, looking at the two of them uncertainly. She was in a long sleeved, light blue sweater dress that was clinging softly to her body and black leggings. Her feet were in familiar, knee high boots and her wand was poking out of a pocket in her dress. He exhaled.

“You were, a little,” Emma told Ari a little defiantly.

“Sorry!” She exclaimed apologetically. “I’ve been looking for you all day. I’m going to head back, maybe we could catch up tomorrow-“

“No, just give me a second!” Charlie told Ari quickly as she turned to leave. “This will only take a minute.”

He turned back to Emma though he watched Ari from the corner of his eye. She was wandering toward the edge of the pitch to give them privacy, her back towards them.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me,” Emma said, her tone defeated. Charlie didn’t date. It was an open secret. He’d never one time said yes to a girl who had asked him and despite his earlier fantasy about what it might be like, he wasn’t going to start now. What was the point? It was a waste of everyone’s time.

“I’m sorry,” he said as Emma stepped back again, her face disappointed. “I just like you as a friend.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Emma said graciously, turning her back to leave. He waited until she was out of sight before jogging over to Ari, aware he was still clutching his broom.

“I like her,” Ari told him when he found her. “She’s cute.”

“She’s not my type,” he told her breezily. Ari frowned.

“What is your type, Charlie? You could probably have any girl in this school if you wanted, you know?”

“Tall, scaly, breathes fire,” he told her matter of factly. Ari smiled.

“Okay. Keep your secrets. I was hoping to catch you tonight with a broom in your hand.”

“Oh yeah?” He asked, running his free hand through his hair. Did she count herself among the girls in the school he could have? The idea was exciting.

“I was hoping we could do a trial run over the forbidden forest-“

“Wait,” he cut her off. “Trial run?”

She looked at him as if the answer were obvious. “Are you not coming into the forbidden forest with me this weekend? I just assumed you’d want to, but it will be dangerous, and I understand if you don’t want to.”

“Rowan told me you were taking Barnaby and Bill,” he confessed. Ari chuckled.

“No offense to Barnaby or Bill, but I think if there is a dragon guarding the vault, I’d prefer it to be you.”

He mounted his broom, scooting up the handle so she could climb behind him. She hesitated, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, before getting on behind him. She wrapped her arms around his chest, and he kicked off, feeling light.

“You’re sweaty,” she complained, resting her chin on his shoulder so she could talk to him.

“What did you expect?” He asked back, wind in his face. The sun was gone, leaving a soft, purple sky above them.

She tightened her grip slightly. “I don’t know.” The rode in silence for a moment, heading towards the forest when she breathed softly onto his neck and he nearly crashed the broom into the ground. With a jerk her straightened them out, annoyed with himself.

“Charlie?” She asked, ignoring his momentary lapse in control. “Did you really think I would take someone else?”

“Well,” he considered, keeping his eyes on the sky above them. “You’ve known Bill and Barnaby much longer.”

He wished he could see her face but to look back risked taking them into another nose dive and Ari was notoriously nervous on a broom.

“On the list of people I always want with me in dangerous situations, your name is always at the top of my list,” she finally said softly, squeezing him slightly. He turned the broom, a little sharper than he meant to, but away from the forest.

“Where are we going?” She asked, watching the trees disappear from their eyeline.

It was sentimental and silly, but he’d always been enchanted by the lake and the things that lurked beneath the surface. He’d flown over it a dozen times, wondering if the giant squid might be watching him, wondering about him like he wondered about it. He wanted to engrave her words into his brain, and what better way to do that than create a specific memory? He dipped down, low enough that their feet could skim the water if the wanted. He grabbed one of her hands, ignoring how her other hand dug into his arm, her nails embedded into his skin. She gasped lightly as he leaned them both to the side and touched her hand into the water.

“You’re going to get us killed,” she warned him but there was no danger and he knew it. She was clinging to him so tightly that nothing could pry her off of him. He straightened them back out and she replaced her hand around him, though her grip did not relax. She practically tumbled onto the bank of the lake when they reached it and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Geeze Ari, am I that bad of a flyer?” He asked, landing smoothly. She stood, brushing dirt off her pants.

“You like to show off, but I’m already impressed. Your ability to just kick off the ground is enough. No need to get fancy,” she grumbled.

“I thought I saw Hagrid,” he lied, smoothly, not wanting to admit that he’d taken her over the lake because he liked it. “I didn’t want him to catch us.”

“Warn a girl next time.” Ari turned, her hair fanning around her, and Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. Maybe she’d never feel the same way about him that he did about her. Watching her walk away, knowing that she preferred him over her other choices, that was good enough for him. It meant he had a place in her life, if he wanted it.

\--

Current day, Hogwarts

Ari was marching her sixth year Gryffindors out to the lake. Technically, no one said she couldn’t give a practical lesson but that was probably because no one expected her to. Ari had been on her best behavior all through September but the closer they got to Halloween the more she wanted to rebel, even a little. She was grumpy as she tried to get to Christmas. Christmas meant family and family really just meant going back home to Charlie and their cats and taking off all these dresses and putting on sweat pants and eating cake in front of the fire.

It was a simple dream and yet every day she wasn’t living it she got a little angrier. So here she was, standing on the bank of the lake, hoping that nothing truly horrible happened that would require her to speak with Snape. She’d spent the night before transfiguring a bunch of sticks into small, wooden boats for the kids to use in order to try and locate a grindylow. The task should be almost impossible, which was fine with Ari. Anything to get them out of that stuffy castle and maybe give them a brief moment of fun in the nonstop madhouse the Carrow’s had created.

“No more than three to a boat!” Ari called as the sixth years clambered aboard. “If you drown I have to fill out a lot of paperwork and I’m trying to avoid that today!”

Ari had her own boat, since she was the teacher and got to make rules, even if they were unfair. She let the wind, and a little magic, sail them out into the middle of the lake. “Today we’re just going to attempt to observe grindylow’s in their natural habitat.”

“Don’t they tend to lurk at the bottom?” A boy, Edgar, asked. Ari narrowed her eyes.

“We can go inside and write an essay, if you’d prefer?”

A chorus of “shut ups” and several splashes of lake water responded to Edgar’s comment. She didn’t expect anything to go wrong, having already done this earlier with her sixth year Ravenclaws. They’d seen nothing except murky water and she’d sent them on their way, satisfied that the fresh air and a teacher that wasn’t trying to kill them had rejuvenated them a little. She was going to definitely replicate this lesson with her Hufflepuff’s tomorrow and her Slytherin’s, the little shits, would be getting an essay instead. The older they got, the more like the Carrow’s they became. She didn’t trust them not to rat her out and force her into another stupid conversation with Amycus.

She’d become a master at dodging him. She planned her whole day around not having to speak to Amycus, and it was working. Partly, she thought with a slight twinge of anger, because he was so busy punishing even the smallest of rule breakers. She had, just that morning, freed a second year Hufflepuff that had been chained by their wrists outside the Great Hall, for having the audacity to write their parents begging to come home. Alecto had designed that punishment, leaving cuts so deep in the boy’s wrists that he’d been bleeding when she found him. Teachers were not supposed to interfere with punishments, but they all did. The only students Ari recommended to the Carrow’s were her older Slytherins who intentionally tried to cause problems, and only because she was certain the Carrow’s weren’t going to hurt one of their own.

The real favorite punishment was using students with detention as practice for unforgivable curses. She’d hear stories of students using the imperious and cruciatus curse on rule breakers, including her younger sister in law Ginny. Ginny, who was sitting in one of the boats now, peering carefully into the water below her. Ari had promised Molly Weasley she’d keep a close eye on Ginny, which was impossible when Ginny seemed determined to give Amycus and Alecto as much hell as she possibly could. Ari could see faint bruising on Ginny’s fair skin, dotting her neck and Ari blanched a little. The older Gryffindor’s were popular targets, and anyone Harry Potter had been close to were especially prized. Ginny was a triple threat in that, on top of being close with Harry and a Gryffindor, she was also a Weasley and if the death eaters could agree on anything, it was that the Weasley’s were the worse sort of pure blood witches and wizards.

A curious thing, though, was happening when it came to Amycus and Ari. Maybe because Ari had started out as a Young, a respectable enough wizarding family on her fathers’ side and a devastatingly pure blood line on her mothers’ side. It might have just been Amycus’s willingness to overlook the fact that she’d married into the Weasley family, perhaps poor judgement on her part. He’d insinuated it enough times that she knew he wanted to know what had driven her to marry Charlie Weasley when she surely had better options out there. Ari never responded to any questions about her marriage, partly out of a strong sense of self-preservation and in part because her marriage was sacred to her and she wasn’t about to let Amycus into any part of it. Whatever was going on, though, Amycus did not hold the same contempt for Ari as he did for the rest of them and it made her nervous.

“Professor,” a voice brought Ari out of her musings. She turned to the student, who, like everyone else, was staring towards the shoreline. She groaned.

“Speak of the devil,” she muttered, pointing her wand in Carrow’s direction. She was the first to disembark, prepared to use her body as a shield if things got dicey.

“What are you doing?” He asked, his blue eyes hot with anger.

“Teaching,” she said tonelessly. “I do it every day.”

“On the lake?” He questioned. Ari stiffened as Ginny came to stand next to her defensively. The last thing she needed was a direct confrontation that she was responsible for.

“Class dismissed,” she said quickly, ignoring how angry Amycus looked as her students filed past her. Ginny hesitated and Ari reached down, hoping Amycus didn’t notice, and squeezed her hand quickly. With a look of pure loathing, Ginny walked away, leaving Ari alone by the lake. It wasn’t the worst place to be forced to make an escape, she thought with calculation. His blasts wouldn’t be accurate once she was submerged in the water and she knew enough magic to navigate whatever was in there.

“You trust them alone on the water?” Amycus asked her, bringing her out of her thoughts about escape. His expression had softened, causing her heart to pick up. She would prefer an attack, she thought, over whatever was happening here. She stepped around him and began walking towards the castle.

“I don’t have to justify my lessons to you,” she snapped, chin jutted in the air with defiance. He grabbed her arm and spun him to face him.

“You don’t know how dangerous these kids can be…” he trailed off, a hand reaching up to brush hair out of her face. She jerked away.

“I think I can manage a bunch of children.” Her skin was crawling. Why did he always feel so entitled to touch her? Even Charlie asked, especially in the beginning. Amycus never thought about personal boundaries or if she was even interested in being touched by him. It circled her back to her earlier musings about why he let her off the hook, despite having taken Charlie’s. Barnaby had been right, Amycus liked her. Ari could see why he had kind of glommed on to her. She was the only appropriately aged woman, with a good enough lineage for him TO be interested in.

She found Ginny waiting for her outside her classroom, looking pale and nervous. “Are you okay?” Ginny asked once Ari walked up.

“I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me. Come in,” Ari added, unlocking the door so Ginny could come in with her.

“He looks at you like he wants to eat you,” Ginny said with concern. Ari rolled her eyes.

“I attract a certain kind of…weirdo,” Ari confided in her younger sister, leading her up towards her office. “That’s nothing new.”

“Are you calling my brother a weirdo?” Ginny asked, her concern giving way to a smile.

“The ultimate weirdo,” Ari laughed.

“I always thought Charlie was popular and handsome in school,” she mused, plopping down in a high-backed chair in Ari’s office.

“Yeah, he could have done a lot better,” Ari agreed. “But I wasn’t going to tell him that, and now he’s trapped.”

“Have you heard anything?” Ginny asked anxiously, her tone shifting again. Ari shook her head.

“Nothing worth-“ a loud explosion shattered the peace around them. Ari jumped but Ginny remained suspiciously calm.

“What was that?” Ari asked, turning towards the door.

Ginny shrugged. “These old buildings are moving around.”

“I went to school with Tonks, I know what an explosion sounds like,” Ari retorted. “Did you…?”

“I’ve been here with you the entire time,” Ginny replied innocently. The two of them moved out of the office, heading towards where the sound originated. Ginny didn’t seem concerned, but Ari was. These were the kinds of pranks that were getting people severely injured. She understood why Ginny had to do it. Ari had been the same kind of kid after all. Her perspective had shifted as she aged, just like she imagined Ginny’s would, too, someday.

It didn’t stop Ari from feeling full blown terror as they rounded a corner only to see an enraged Amycus striding towards them. His wand was out and pointed directly at Ginny. Ari flung her arm out, shielding Ginny from the blast the emanated from Amycus’s wand, which sent her writhing to the floor in white hot pain. She was tempted to stay on the cool floor, but the idea of Ginny retaliating had her on her feet again, her body still a shield. Amycus, who seemed shocked that it had been Ari that he hit instead of Ginny, stared for a minute. Ari stepped backwards, forcing Ginny with her, until Ginny’s back was against the wall.

“She was with me,” Ari said breathlessly. “She’s been with me, she didn’t do-“

“I know she did!” He screamed. “Dumbledore’s ARMY?!” He roared. Ari closed her eyes, trying to summon enough strength to make Amycus feel crazy while trying to keep her body jerking like a fish out of water. She’d never been on the receiving end of an unforgivable curse and the feeling was exceptionally unpleasant. “THAT’S HER!”

Ari shook her head. “She’s been with me, it’s not possible. Amycus, be reasonable-“

“MOVE,” He ordered, pointing his wand at Ari. Ari locked her knees.

“I’m not going to,” she told him softly, hoping she looked more resolute than she felt. “You’re overreacting.”

“I’m restoring ORDER!” He shouted, inching closer to Ari’s face. Ari reached behind her, aware that Amycus’s focus was directed squarely at her, and began shoving Ginny out from behind her in a clear direction to move.

“I’m not going-“ Ginny began to protest but Ari spoke over her.

“You’re SCARING me.” She made her eyes wide. Ginny slipped out from behind her and was gone, with Amycus watching, though he did nothing to prevent it. He watched with narrowed eyes, before turning back to Ari.

“Why do you protect them?” He asked, stepping into her personal space. With her back against the wall, Ari was aware she had no where to go, and no one who could help her. If she attacked him, what would happen to her?

“Why do you want to hurt them?” She shot back, eyes full of hate.

“Pain is a good teacher,” Amycus told her, his foul breath in her face. “It’s how I learned.”

“And what an excellent human being you turned out to be,” Ari told him sarcastically, turning her head to the side to avoid the smell of him.

“Why did you marry the blood traitor?” He asked, one hand on the wall behind her and the other running up the side of her dress, open palmed, until it reached her neck. He closed his fingers around her throat, shoving her head hard against the stone.

“Have you seen him?” She asked, ignoring the pressure he exerted at the sound of her words. It was a low blow to be sure, since she figured he had to be insecure about his appearance. On a scale of one to ten, where ten was the most mediocre looking man in existence, Amycus didn’t even hit the scale. He looked like he’d never spent any substantial amount of time in the sun and his face was strangely scarred, as if the ugliness inside of him had found a way to manifest itself physically.

“You know what I think?” He whispered, forcing her to look at him.

“I don’t care what you think,” Ari told him.

“I think,” Amycus continued, “Being married to a blood traitor has made you soft and weak. I could fix you.”

She opened her mouth to tell him where he could go when the pain from before overwhelmed her body and she did scream, unable to move because of his hand pinning her to a wall.

“CARROW!” A voice roared, ending the torture. Ari blinked twice, clearing her vision. Barnaby was standing a foot from her, wand out like an avenging angel. He looked angrier than she’d ever seen him. “Are you attacking a teacher?!”

“She’s covering for the Weasley brat!” Amycus said quickly, but his grip around Ari’s throat vanished.

“Snape would have your head,” Barnaby whispered as Ari slid down the wall. “You need to get out of here.”

“What about her?” Amycus asked, fear tinging his words.

“Leave her. It’ll be your word against hers.”

She looked up, her whole body seeping with rage, and watched as Amycus looked down at her again, as if he was trying to make a decision, before he took off back the way he came. Barnaby waited until Amycus was gone before he scooped Ari up.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” he said, walking quickly.

“Did Ginny send you?” Ari asked, focusing on the sound of his steps.

“Yeah. What did you say to him?”

“I told him he was ugly.”

The sound of Barnaby’s laugh brought Ari out of her mini-coma she was slipping into.

“That’s a sore spot,” Barnaby confided in her. “A lot of women have told him that.”

“Anyone with eyes would,” Ari agreed, aware that Barnaby was setting her on something soft. “I’m going to kill him when this is all over.”

“I hope you do. Try and sleep it off.”

Ari barely heard him as she drifted into a place that didn’t hurt.


	6. Enchanted

_This night is sparkling, don't you let it go_

_I'm wonder struck, blushing all the way home_

_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew_

_This night is flawless, don't you let it go_

_I'm wonder struck, dancing around all alone_

_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew_

_I was enchanted to meet you_

 

_Summer before seventh year_

In some ways, Barnaby knew he had no right to ask Charlie Weasley to meet him here. Charlie was dealing with enough, what with Ari disappearing and his own parents furious with him. The problem was that Barnaby was afraid, and he needed someone who could be courageous even when things were terrifying.

Barnaby was moving out of his parents’ home today. He’d been thinking about it for the last two years but had never had the guts to really pull the trigger. He’d had several conversations with Charlie about it throughout the year and his family had promised him he could stay and finish the year at their house. Barnaby knew it was an imposition; the Weasley’s were already responsible for so many other children and he was another person to worry about and feed and take care of…but he couldn’t stay here.

Part of it was Rowan. Rowan, who was brilliant and beautiful and interesting and firm in her convictions. She’d never want anything to with him if he couldn’t denounce his ties to death eaters and you-know-who. His parents privately thought that you-know-who might return someday, or they hoped it. He didn’t hope for that, though he had thought once that he might. He was confused a lot about what he really believed. He believed in his friends, though, who had always believed in him.

Charlie appeared; his face creased in a frown as he looked up at the sprawling home his parents maintained. The Lee’s were part of the twenty-eight families in Britain with an untainted bloodline, and he figured that if he went back far enough, he’d find the Weasley’s in there somewhere. The Lee’s, like most pure blood families, liked to pretend that the Weasley’s were somehow not one of them but Barnaby knew better. All the twenty-eight families were incestuous at this point. There was no way to maintain blood purity without either continuously intermarrying each other or looking outside of Britain for families with as pure a bloodline as yourself, which most twenty-eighters were loathed to do. Of course, you could always marry just anyone without concern as to blood purity, like Tonks’s mom had done, but that sort of shenaniganry was enough to get you black listed.

Charlie fell in the middle category. Ari was from one of the oldest wizarding families in the western world, if her mother was to be believed, but still pure on her mom’s side, and respectable enough on her dads. Barnaby would also be lucky in that regard. The Khanna’s could trace their lineage back centuries, though their family was not one of the twenty-eight because the Khanna’s had come over from India at some point, and unlike the Lee’s, had no problem marrying anyone, despite their wizarding or otherwise status.

Rowan would make a poor choice of a wife in that regard. Rowan made him want to be better than he was. Smarter, more interesting, dependable. Someone a Hufflepuff could love. A tall order, since so many qualities that Hufflepuff’s valued flew right in the face of Slytherin’s. Rowan prized loyalty and honesty, qualities that Barnaby had never been too concerned with himself. Sometimes manipulation and cunning were more expedient to achieving a goal. Even Ari sometimes understood that, though she might never admit it. But, he reasoned, if Penny and Tulip could make it work, so could he and Rowan.

He just had to tell her first.

“This is where you grew up?” Charlie asked, looking up at huge, marble columns.

“Don’t let it fool you; it’s always been a prison,” Barnaby said darkly as he walked to the ornate, wooden front door.

“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to prove anything to us,” Charlie assured him. Barnaby couldn’t turn and look his friend in the eyes because he might waver. This was hard and he wasn’t completely certain he wanted to deal with the fall out. He pushed open the door without responding. If he failed now, he wasn’t worthy of any of them. It would mean that Ari was wrong about him, which he’d always secretly suspected. And if Ari was wrong, and he didn’t deserve any of them as friends…well…then he had no right to want Rowan as bad as he did.

His trunk was already packed, thanks to an overzealous house elf. His parents were standing in the foyer, arms crossed across their chests. He couldn’t look at his mother, whose bottom lip was quivering just slightly. He’d always favored her. They had the same bright green eyes and dark brown hair and the same interest in magical creatures. She used to read him stories about them when he was a little boy.

Next to her, his father stood, a muscle jumping in his square jaw, his own blue eyes ice cold. When they saw Charlie walk in behind him his mother let out a soft cry and his father’s nostril’s flared, a sure sign of rage. Charlie was unmistakable, with his red hair and freckles. Charlie, for his part, stood like a bouncer behind Barnaby, just a witness incase things took a turn for the worse.

“Think about what you’re doing,” his mom cried softly, watching as Barnaby grabbed the handle of one of his trunks. He could carry it on his own, but Charlie had moved forward to grab the other.

“If you walk out that door you can never come back,” his father said coldly. Barnaby hesitated. Walking away from his family was hard. He couldn’t make eye contact with his mother as he started walking out of the house and back into the overcast of the day. The door slammed shut behind him with a finality that made his heart skin a little. He couldn’t have doubts anymore. Charlie looked at him sympathetically and Barnaby resisted the urge to say something cruel. It’s what his father would have done and it’s not who he was. It’s not who he’d ever been.

“Let’s get out of here,” Charlie said. Barnaby nodded, letting Charlie practice his newly acquired apparating skills on them both. The sensation was unpleasant but expedient and they were gone with one quick breath.

“There you two are,” Molly Weasley exclaimed, meeting them outside the front door to the burrow. Barnaby exhaled as Molly, a head shorter than him, put her hands on his face for a moment with the same sympathetic look Charlie had given him just seconds earlier. “I was starting to worry.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Barnaby told her with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. She pulled him into a tight hug that made him feel better. At least, he felt like he’d done the right thing.

Molly pulled back with a look that told him she’d have worried about him even in the best of circumstances, and motioned for him to follow her in. He grabbed the handle of his trunk and with Charlie’s help, deposited into his room. Charlie had his own bedroom now, since Bill had moved out which was convenient for them both. Barnaby took Bills old bed and sat on the Gryffindor colored bed spread.

“Thanks,” he told Charlie gruffly. Charlie, who was staring out his bedroom window moodily, turned back to his friend.

“It was nothing.”

“It was everything.”

\--

Present day, Hogwarts

Barnaby was irritated when Amycus barged into his classroom at the end of the day, a Friday that happened to be Halloween. Barnaby had plans, since his classes were officially done, and none of them figured Amycus into them.

“Have you heard anything about Snape?” Amycus asked, watching as the last student filed out of the open-air classroom.

“Why would I?” Barnaby inquired, slipping into the mask of a much dumber man.

“With…what happened with Young,” Amycus continued impatiently. Barnaby resisted the urge to pick up a massive rock and bash Amycus’s brains in right there on the spot. Ari had been slinking around the castle like a cat with her tail between her legs ever since her little altercation with Amycus, though he knew that Amycus had poked the metaphorical badger. Ari wasn’t going to let it go that easy and whatever she had planned, he wanted no part of officially. Rowan was in on it, if their secrecy lately was any indication. Ari always roped Rowan into her schemes and Rowan went willingly.

He shook his head, turning back to Amycus. “I don’t think she reported it.”

Amycus breathed a sigh of relief. “You went to school with her, didn’t you?”

Barnaby strode past Amycus haughtily, annoyed that this is what his life had boiled down to. Forced to pretend that he thought he was better than everyone else because of his parentage while interacting with the literal scum of the earth. He did think he was better than Amycus, but dragon dung was also better than Amycus so the bar was low.

“What is this about?” Barnaby asked, resigned to the fact that Amycus was following him back to the castle, determined to pester him about Ari.

“What was she like?”

Barnaby stopped in his tracks, letting the chilly October air blow in his face. “We called her the cursed girl.”

“Why?”

“Her curses were deadly,” Barnaby said, half-truthfully. He was willing to bolster Ari’s reputation a little if it kept Amycus at bay.

“And why did she marry Weasley?”

“Why does anyone get married? Why do you care about any of this?”

“The Weasley’s will be dead by the end of this war, you know that,” Amycus said coldly as they resumed walking. “Traitors, the lot of them. She doesn’t seem like one of them, though.”

Barnaby didn’t respond because what could he say? That Ari was definitely one of them and had taken extraordinary measures to try and prevent you-know-who years earlier, only to fail miserably? That she’d do it all over again if she thought it would make a difference this time? He almost told Amycus that even if Charlie died, Ari wouldn’t give him the time of day. Ari had promised to kill Amycus by the end of the war and Barnaby would do whatever it took to help her fulfill it.

“Are you going to Hogsmeade tonight?” Amycus continued, oblivious to Barnaby’s musings.

“Yes,” Barnaby said in clipped tones. He knew that Amycus wasn’t because, in true form, Amycus had tried to have the little affair shut down a week earlier. Madam Rosmerta always threw a Halloween party for adults and most of the teachers at Hogwarts went. This year was a masked dance, which Barnaby thought was a little overdone, but any excuse to get out of the castle and around people who didn’t make him sick was good enough for him.

Plus, he had a little surprise arranged that hinged on Amycus not showing up.

“Trash,” Amycus began but Barnaby took a sharp right and was free. Amycus was gone. Barnaby had a specific plan to get Amycus off of Ari’s back, and that was a marriage to another death eater. Most marriages were arranged between families and Barnaby was related to most of the prominent families at this point which gave him a bit of an edge. Ismelda, from his days at Hogwarts, was still unmarried which was an embarrassment among the pure-blooded families. Most of them wanted their daughters married the second they stepped out of Hogwarts. Ismelda, much like Alecto, was still unmarried, mostly because she was duller than a box of crystals and unattractive on top of it. However, beggars couldn’t really be choosers, right?

Ismelda was available and one of them, and from a good family to boot. Amycus would be stupid not to take her. Amycus was, by definition, stupid though so Barnaby was worried about his chances. The longer his obsession with Ari carried on the more dangerous it would become. He couldn’t protect her if Amycus decided to make her his wife by force or did something reckless like attacked Charlie.

On second thought, Barnaby considered, he sort of hoped Amycus would. Charlie would blast him into a million pieces. Charlie’s ability with a wand was often overshadowed by his much more competent wife. To be fair, Ari was one of the best duelists he’d ever seen, himself not included. When people thought about Charlie, they thought about a ginger dude who was really into dragons, but Barnaby had been with Charlie when they faced down Jacob and Charlie had been ferocious when subduing that dragon. He could only imagine what would happen when it was Charlie taking down the man who was sniffing around his wife. Barnaby imagined it with glee. If Ari didn’t kill Amycus first, at any rate.

He found his wife and Ari talking quietly over dinner, both of them in pointy witches’ hats, the only two to dress up. Sometimes, even as adults, they were so obviously Hufflepuffs. He couldn’t hate it, though. It’s what he liked best about Rowan, after all. He joined them, sitting next to Rowan.

“Are you just eating candy for dinner?” He asked, glancing down at their plates. All real food remained untouched but the bowl of Bertie Bot’s Beans in front of them was practically empty.

“It’s _Halloween,_ ” Ari said emphatically, grabbing more beans. “How can I eat peas at a time like this?”

“Tonks would be disappointed in us if we didn’t” Rowan agreed.

“The only thing that would make Tonks happy is blowing something up,” Barnaby told them but began eating candy with the same gusto of his wife and friend.

“Well,” Ari said thoughtfully, leaning back in her chair. “Zonko’s is closed up so we can’t.”

“But it’s not for a lack of trying…on Ari’s part,” Rowan continued, quickly amending that it was all Ari’s idea after a stare from Barnaby. Ari seemed unconcerned that Barnaby was practically glaring at them.

“Are you planning to prank the Carrows?” Barnaby asked her after a long pause.

“Maybe. I’m going to enact some sort of revenge on him.”

“What about the best revenge-“

“Filling his bed with spiders?” Ari interrupted, eyes wide with deceptive innocence.

“Living a good life.”

“Boo,” Ari and Rowan both said in unison, giving Barnaby a thumbs down.

“The best revenge is revenge,” Ari said matter of factly.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with-“

“No,” Ari said fiercely, her laid back demeanor changing instantly. “He didn’t know who he was dealing with when he put his hands on my body.”

Barnaby shifted awkwardly in his seat. He didn’t know what it was like, to fear intrusion in your own body by someone more powerful or stronger than you, so he didn’t say anything in response to her. Ari was so confident in her abilities that he knew he should just leave it alone. She was more than a match, and even if she did get caught it wasn’t like Amycus was going to do anything to her.

“What is that lot up to?” Rowan asked, cutting through Barnaby’s thoughts. He followed her eyes to the Gryffindor table, where Ginny Weasley was whispering among several other seventh year Gryffindors. It had mischief written all over it.

Ari blew out a loud sigh. “Something that’s going to earn me a Howler from Molly if I know Ginny.”

“Did you see the graffiti this morning? Dumbledore’s Army lives,” Rowan whispered, just in case anyone was listening in on their conversation.

“Even Filch doesn’t seem motivated to find and punish whoever is responsible,” Ari commented lightly. “Lucky them.”

“For now,” Barnaby retorted, aware he was always the gloomy Gus lately.

“Let’s not worry about them tonight. We’ve got fun, adult plans _outside_ of Hogwarts. Sanctioned by Snape himself which means no one can stop us. I _need_ this, Barnaby,” Ari implored him. “If the Gryffindor gang is planning some massive prank, lets make sure we are as far away from the castle as possible.”

“You don’t want to intervene?” He asked her, surprised. Ari shrugged.

“And do what? Beg Snape to go easy on the group of kids he’d most like to expel? I think expelling Ginny would help me sleep at night, to be honest.”

“The Carrow’s will torture them,” Rowan muttered, their good mood evaporating.

“Again,” Barnaby agreed. No group of Gryffindors had spent more time at the other end of the cruciatus curse than Ginny, Neville, Dean, and Lavender. Ari hadn’t been able to intervene once, though she’d tried. The problem was it typically happened in Amycus’s class and Ari found out about it second hand, after the fact.

“I’m going to get ready. We need to get out of here before dementors start patrolling and my hair will take me ages.” Ari told them, sliding out of her seat.

“We’ll meet you at the entrance around dusk?” Rowan asked anxiously. Ari nodded, leaving the two of them by themselves. Rowan eyed the Gryffindors one last time before turning to Barnaby. “I should go, too. Keep the Carrow’s far away from us tonight, okay?”

He nodded, watching her slip out unnoticed.

 

\--

Ari practically floated to the front of the castle, her gauzy, purple dress dancing softly around her. It was way too cold for a dress with no sleeves but she didn’t care. Her mask was lacy and black and only really covered her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She wasn’t fooling anyone, though, not with her shock of red hair curled wildly around her face. She was going for a look that was soft, yet also screamed feral witch living in the Scottish country side that raised goats.

“Whoa smoky eye,” said Rowan when Ari flounced in, her dark hair twisted nicely at the nape of her neck. Her dress was vampy and sexy for Rowan, a tight black and green number that clung tightly to Rowans body. Barnaby had an arm snaked tightly around her waist, his eyes never drifting from Rowan’s figure. Ari didn’t blame him.

“Whoa just…in general,” Ari said, motioning up and down at Rowan.

“You’re not the only one who needs this,” Rowan told her with blazing eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”

“You’re going to that…” a reedy voice said from behind Ari, turning her blood cold. Before she turned, Ari saw Rowan shoot Barnaby an accusatory glance. “Dance?”

“I was invited,” Ari said coldly. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“It’s…” he gulped. Ari couldn’t deal with this. Just the idea that he found any part of her attractive made her want to light herself on fire.

“Have a good Halloween, Amycus,” she said curtly, not waiting for him to insult her friends for the eight hundredth time in a day. She turned on her heel with satisfaction as her dress swished around like she was suspended in water, and the three of them made their way out into the blinding pink and orange sky.

“It would be pathetic if it was anyone else,” Rowan said once they were out of earshot and on their way down, looping her arm through Ari’s. “Like sometimes I start to feel bad for him but then I remember he’s actual trash and it just flies out the window.”

“If he keeps it up I’m going to have to take drastic actions. Maybe chop off all my hair, go the Mad-Eye route and suspended one of my eyeballs outside of my face…tattoo a giant badger on my cheek.”

“Stop it Ari, you’re describing my perfect woman,” Barnaby told her with a playful smile.

“Is that all it takes to get a man?” Rowan asked dryly.

“We’re simple creatures,” Barnaby told her as Ari giggled.

“You know me, Ro, I’ve always had that special touch with the dudes.”

“Oh yeah, who could forget your legendary game,” Rowan said sarcastically, unlooping her arm to secure a black and white mask over her features. Next to her, Barnaby was putting a mask over the left part of his face. They could hear the music from outside the Three Broomsticks. Ari couldn’t help but bounce a little as she walked, glad she’d stuck with flat shoes.

“So true. Remember Ari, breaking hearts all over Hogwarts?” Barnaby continued as Rowan burst out into a peal of giggles.

“Yeah, she had so much game she didn’t even notice a guy was literally in love with her until, what? She was seventeen.”

“You guys are the worst,” Ari grumbled, pulling the doors to the Three Broomsticks open. It seemed like the entire village was in there, some dressed according to Rosemerta’s theme and others who came just to drink for half the price. Ari spotted Professor Sprout, Flitwick, and Slughorn off in a corner with massive beverages in front of them. She was glad that the three of them weren’t the only teachers trying to escape tonight.

“I’ll get drinks!” Barnaby called over the music as Rowan grabbed Ari’s hand and dragged them to the dance floor. Ari didn’t need any convincing, immediately moving her body to the pop-y beat. It felt good to forget about all the horror around them and have a little fun for a moment.

Barnaby found Penny and Andre at a table towards the back and Ari and Rowan joined them, all doing a shot of fire whiskey quickly before sitting as a group.

“Just like old times,” Penny said with a sweet smile, her pale blue dress making her bright blue eyes seem brighter somehow, even through a gold mask. Andre had gone a similar route as Barnaby, wearing dress robes but instead of black he’d opted for a crisp, navy blue and a full faced black mask that he held over his face with a stick.

“Almost,” Ari agreed. It was impossible not to miss the absences to their group. It wasn’t really Halloween without Tonks or Tulip, and it wasn’t really a true group gathering without Ben, Bill, and Charlie.

“I don’t want to worry about anything except who is coming home with me tonight,” Andre said with a grin, surveying the dance floor. There were a lot of women out there, though Ari didn’t know how he could tell who he might want to take home. Most of them were masked. He held his hand out to Ari, surprising her. “Help me make some of them jealous.”

“What are friends for?” She grinned, letting him spin her before they made their way to the dance floor. The song was slower and it was nice to let a friend pull her into a dance. “Are you okay?” He asked her once they were alone. Ari rolled her eyes.

“If you don’t put some space between us, people will think you’re taken.”

“Oh please,” he grinned over her shoulder, winking at someone she couldn’t see. “No one is worried about you.”

“They should be. I’m adorable.”

“You’re…something alright.”

She smacked him lightly. “I’m fine.”

“I heard-“

“Barnaby is overreacting,” Ari said quickly. “And I don’t want to talk about Amycus tonight.”

Andre stopped flirting over her head to look down at her, his dark eyes suddenly brutally serious. “What did Amycus do?”

“What were you talking about?” She asked suddenly, guarded.

“It must be hard to be back at Hogwarts during all of this. What are you talking about?” Andre asked her, eyes narrowed.

“Nothing,” she said quickly, letting him spin her. He pulled her into his chest.

“You’ve always been a bad liar.”

She grinned, shrugging her shoulders. Behind him, the doors opened, and a familiar figure stepped inside, much to Ari’s horror. Amycus was never going to let her enjoy one solitary moment of her existence, was he? It was clear he had tried to clean himself up as best he could which made the entire thing so much worse.

Ari knew there was a passage back to the castle in the back of the Three Broomsticks and she decided she was just going back, before he could trap her into a dance and put his hands on her skin again. Around her, the song slowed, and a man was walking towards them. That was just the distraction she needed, she decided, assuming that he was there for Andre.

He wasn’t, though. “Dance?” He asked, his face hidden by an orange and red mask. Amycus had spotted her and was making his way through the crowd so Ari nodded quickly, taking the man’s rough hands into her own and letting him pull her into a dance. The stranger wrapped a hand tightly around her waist, pulling her too closely into his body but she didn’t care. Anyone was better, she thought. She glanced over at her friends, hoping they noticed and would run interference for her so she could slip out once the dance ended, but they were all laughing among each other, oblivious to her.

She found Amycus again, sulking on the edge of the dance floor. Their eyes met briefly, forcing Ari to pay more attention to her partner, who was moving her through familiar steps. She hadn’t danced a waltz since Professor McGonagall had goaded her into it back in school. She closed her eyes and took a breath in and out, trying to remember the steps. Charlie had been the better dancer, which had made her seem good, too. She leaned into the stranger, tightening her grip on his shoulder. He was in dark black, like almost every other man there. Men were so uncreative, she thought absently, her eyes wandering back to the bar, where she’d need to get to quickly, in order to make it to the back and down the trap door unnoticed. She didn’t want to give away the passage to Amycus, either. She wanted to just vanish in the night like a ghost.

The man’s grip tightened slightly, and he lifted her in the air, like everyone else around them, but Ari gasped, caught off guard. She looked at him as he spun her away from his body, his eyes locked on her face. Blue eyes looked back at her and her breath caught in her throat. Over his shoulder, she saw her friends again, all of them watching her intently. She looked back at the man and let her hand that was resting on his shoulder snake around his neck where she felt long hair, styled intentionally out of his face. The candlelight made it impossible to see the color, but Ari stupidly realized she’d recognize that shade of blue anywhere. She’d been so preoccupied with escaping Amycus that Charlie Weasley had managed to slip in unnoticed by her.

She almost burst into tears. “How did you get here?” She asked as moved her fluidly against the music. He tightened his grip on the small of her back.

“Penny, of course,” he replied, his voice gruffer than usual. “I never miss a chance to dress up and dance.”

She couldn’t contain the giggles that erupted from her mouth. “You haven’t put on dress robes since our wedding,” she reminded him, resting her chin on his shoulder.

“We don’t have the same occasions to wear them back home,” he replied quickly, peeling her body off of his to drop her in a low dip. Was that one of the moves? She honestly couldn’t remember anymore.

“If you want to organize an annual dragon dance, I would be happy to help,” she teased, aware the music was beginning to shift into a faster tempo.

“There is nothing my dragons would love more,” he told her, half serious. Ari didn’t doubt it, but not because dragons enjoyed jovial festivities, but because they loved an easy meal. Only Charlie was allowed near them, even among the most angry and abused dragons. He had a way with them that no one else did, herself included. She secretly thought they could smell her fear. She still remembered her first encounter with a dragon and was happy to keep her distance from his sanctuary.

“How long are you here?” She asked a little breathless.

“I could be here all weekend if you want,” he told her honestly, though it was a little had to take him seriously through his mask. “I’ve got a room and I don’t think it would hurt to spend forty-eight hours from home.”

“Stay,” she implored quickly. “Don’t go.”

He spun her quickly, an easy smile playing on his lips. “Wild chimeras couldn’t stop me.”

\--

Barnaby almost missed Ismelda walk in, too busy staring at Ari being an oblivious idiot. He knew that, technically, he was the dumb one in their friend group because he one time mistook all those eels for water balloons but sometimes, he thought that Ari gave him a run for his money.

He could sense Ismelda anywhere, though. She’d tried to dose him with a love potion in his fifth year and even though Ari and Penny managed to stop her right before anything serious happened, he had always been on edge afterwards. He sprang out of his chair, pushing past Amycus who was also staring at Ari, with more loathing than Barnaby would have preferred, and made his way to Ismelda. It seemed as though she’d made an effort to make herself look presentable; her hair was twisted up nicely at the nape of her neck, though several greasy strands had escaped and were limply framing her face. Her skin had also cleared, though a few scars left the tell-tale signs of out of control acne as a youth. She was wearing a strappy black dress that clung nicely to her too-thin frame, although it couldn’t have been warm in this chilly October weather, and a plain black mask covered most of her face.

“You wanted to see me?” She asked in that low, aggressive voice that still made him a little panicky. She’d only become more dangerous as she’d aged. If she didn’t like his plan or he offended her, she might be just as likely to hurt him as she was to leave.

“Did you read my letter?” He asked her, hoping that some of his schoolboy charm was left to at least convince her to talk to Amycus.

Her eyes narrowed. “You want to set me up with Carrow.”

“Or, just talk to him,” Barnaby interceded quickly. “It doesn’t have to be love.”

“The Carrows are a bad match,” Ismelda told him as he took her by the elbow and led her towards the bar. “Their family is…mixed.”

Barnaby almost smashed his face into the glass top of the bar. Could she really be this picky? It’s not like men were lining up outside her door, begging for dates. Ismelda would legitimize Amycus in certain death eating circles, the kind that the Lestranges and Malfoys circulated, and Amycus brought the Murks a chance to continue their line with distinction and honor, since their other daughter had run off with a so-called blood traitor. Though, Ismelda’s sister Emilie hadn’t gone for a Weasley type at all. Whoever the bloke was, he was thoroughly uninteresting, as far as lineage went. The pressure was high for Ismelda to do better.

“Almost all families are, now a days,” he told her seriously, motioning for two drinks. He kept his eyes away from Rowan, who he could feel boring holes into the side of his face. “We can’t survive otherwise.”

“Is it true Amycus is Snape’s right-hand man?” She asked thoughtfully, glancing back out at the dance floor.

“That is…certainly something that has been said,” Barnaby said cagily. “Here, you stay and I’ll bring him over and you can ask him for yourself.”

Barnaby made his way through the dance floor, his eyes fixed on Amycus who was staring at Ari like she was something he’d like to devour.

“Who is she with?” He demanded the moment Barnaby reached him. “Who is that man?”

Thank Merlin, Barnaby thought, that Charlie had the good sense to keep his mask on. Amycus was seething with rage and the last thing anyone needed was a brawl.

“How could I possibly know that?” Barnaby asked, adopting his most bored tone. “I brought someone here for you to meet…”

“I’m not interested in being set up. Again,” Amycus added.

There were a lot of not so concealed rumors that Amycus wasn’t interested in marriage because of his sister. Something…weird…people said, went on between them. They were too close, even for siblings. Barnaby agreed, personally. Amycus could have been married in the last year, if he’d wanted to be, but he didn’t. Whatever happened with him and Alecto in Azkaban had changed them and bonded them in a way that it was probably impossible for other people to understand.

“Especially not with a Murk,” Amycus continued, his sour face darkening as he realized who was waiting for him at the bar. Ismelda was also scowling in Barnaby’s direction. What a disaster, he thought. Had he really been naïve enough to think this might work?

Yes, he decided. Scowl all they wanted; he’d planted the idea in their heads. He raised a hand up to Ismelda, signaling she should give him another moment. He had intended to try and talk sense into Amycus, to make him see that Ari was not available to him, but Amycus didn’t give him the chance.

“You haven’t been honest with me,” Amycus said, turning the full brunt of his rage onto Barnaby. Barnaby was taken aback but how dangerous Amycus suddenly seemed. He glanced back towards Ismelda but Charlie caught his eye. Ari was holding his mask in her hands, beaming with delight. Sometimes, he thought with an internal groan, she had no sense of self-preservation. She’d always been that way and she always would be.

Putting on a bored expression, Barnaby rolled his eyes. “Her love life doesn’t interest me the same way it interests you,” he told Amycus as flatly as possible.

“Why did she marry him?” Amycus pressed. “What does he have-“

“An untainted blood line, for one,” Barnaby said with a much venom as he could muster. “When we were in school, he was the most popular boy there.” A lie, he thought ruefully. That had been himself, but maybe Amycus would back off if he thought Ari had married Charlie for the same reasons any pure blood death eater witch would. “Quidditch Captain, Head Boy, deadly with a wand…she couldn’t have done better if she’d tried. I don’t think she would have noticed you at all if you’d been in school with us.”

It worked. Some of Amycus’s anger evaporated and was replaced by his ever-present insecurities. If you stacked Amycus up against Charlie there was no comparison. Ari was objectively pretty and had been even as an awkward school girl- Charlie hadn’t been the only boy in school that’d crushed after her hard. Add on top of that that she was smart and genuinely nice and interesting to be around and Ari became the kind of package any guy would have been lucky to be with. Amycus could not measure up. He was sallow and weedy, uninterested in anything outside of dark magic and cruel. A man like him would wilt someone like Ari.

“This isn’t school anymore, Lee,” Amycus said, his eyes drifting back to Ari. Barnaby looked at her, too, happy in the moment as she danced terribly with Charlie.

“I can’t imagine much has changed,” Barnaby said dismissively, turning his back on Amycus. Back at the bar, Ismelda was waiting with a steaming drink in her hand.

“Everybody always did fawn over her,” Ismelda spat, guessing correctly what was happening with Amycus. “I never saw the appeal.”

“You could do better than a Carrow,” Barnaby said bluntly, abandoning his plan. After all, he and Ismelda had been friends once.

“I can’t even do well enough to get a Carrow,” she told him honestly, taking a long gulp from her mug. “It doesn’t matter though.”

“Who do you want?” Barnaby asked absently, his mind still turning over his interaction with Amycus.

“I couldn’t disappoint my parents. Not after Emilie…” Ismelda said with a surprising amount of vulnerability. Barnaby’s gaze snapped up to her face to see who she might be looking at but she was staring down at her hands.

“You could tell me,” he told her, letting some of his careful veneer slip just for a moment. It was a mistake.

“I couldn’t tell you anything I didn’t want your mudblood friends to know,” she snapped, slamming her glass down on the wooden surface of the bar. “Maybe you fooled everyone else but not me.”

She stormed out, leaving him alone at the bar. He wasn’t worried about her outburst- Ismelda always lashed out when someone got a little too close.

He rubbed his eyes before making his way back to Rowan. Why did he bother getting involved at all?

 

\--

She’d stepped outside to breathe for a moment, caught up in the noise and the heat of the space. The Three Broomsticks was at capacity and it almost felt like everything was normal. A moment of levity in amidst the crushing seriousness of the world around them. Ari inhaled deeply, closing her eyes against a bright, starlit sky. She couldn’t have asked for a better night if she’d tried. Almost all her friends were there and so was Charlie, which was the best thing going for her right now.

Leave it to Amycus to ruin it, she thought darkly when she opened her eyes and saw him walking towards her. He appeared out of thin air, as if he’d been lurking in the shadows specifically waiting for her. She was tempted to turn on her heel and vanish among the people, but maybe a confrontation was what they needed. He couldn’t do anything to her, not in front of so many people, and she could finally tell him where he could shove his feelings.

“Guess who just got caught trying to break into the headmaster’s office?” He asked, his voice practically breathless with joy. Her skin froze to ice as his eyes, illuminated by the flickering lights from the window, shone with coldhearted malice. “I’ll give you three guesses, but I’ll bet you only need one.”

“You’re lying,” she snarled, but fear was already pooling in her stomach. Surely Ginny wouldn’t be so stupid as to try and break into Snape’s office. Not tonight when all the faculty members who could protect her were off campus all night.

He stepped towards her, his face inches from hers. She fought the urge to recoil. “I would never lie to you.” She put her hands on his chest and physically shoved him away from her, taking several steps away and turning her back on him as her mind raced. If she could get back to the castle, maybe she could stop whatever horrific fate that was awaiting Ginny. She knew the secret passage back into the castle but she couldn’t let Amycus know about it.

“What do you think will happen to her?” He asked, unaware of the scheming happening in Ari’s brain. She turned to look at him, attempting to squash the urge to physically kill him with her bare hands. How could anyone be so sick that they’d delight in the torture of a child?

“You’re sick,” she told him, taking a step towards him, her hand curled around her wand so tightly that her fingernails were bruising the skin of her palm. “There is something wrong with you.”

He shook his head, but his smile faded just enough for her to know that her words had cut at something, some small sliver of his humanity. “Maybe you’re just soft.”

She took another step forward, aware that now it was her who was invading his personal space. She needed to just go and stop trying to beat Amycus, but he’d physically restrained her, touched her, and threatened her and she was still replaying the incident in a loop in her head, filled with both an intense desire for revenge it bordered on pathological and an overwhelming sense of shame that it had ever happened in the first place. What she was hoping she’d see, if she was the one in his space, was that same fear she knew he saw when he got too close to her.

“I’d rather be soft,” she practically whispered, aware that his hands were trembling slightly, “than a rotting. Piece. Of meat.”

It was his turn to take a step backwards and she could smell it, more insecurity than fear, but she’d take what she could get. She whirled on her heel and was back inside before he could say another word. She needed Barnaby and she needed to move quickly.

Unfortunately, Charlie caught her before she got to Barnaby, grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her into his chest. “Hey you,” he murmured in her ear. He smelled like fire whiskey and she shivered slightly at his touch. “What do you say we get out of here?”

She crushed her mouth against his quickly before wrenching herself reluctantly from his grasp. “I can’t,” she told him breathlessly. “Your sister broke into Snape’s office and I have to try and rescue her.”

His easy-going expression melted into horror. “Go.” He said urgently. “I’ll be here in the morning.”

She nodded, turning her back on him to grab Barnaby, lurking off to the side as Rowan danced with Penny. “We need to go right now.”

She scanned the crowd for Amycus as she made her way through the crowd, aware that Charlie was watching them. Certain that he was the only one, they made their way to the storeroom, where Barnaby shoved crates aside and pulled open the trap door. Kicking off her shoes quickly, Ari descended down into the tunnel with Barnaby right behind her. She practically ran, him at her side, back towards the castle.

“What happened?” He asked once the noise from the Three Broomsticks vanished.

“Ginny tried to break into Snape’s office-“ she began but Barnaby interrupted with a loud curse.

“Is she STUPID?!” He demanded. Panic was starting to overwhelm Ari.

“I don’t know what she was thinking,” she said anxiously, blinking away the urge to cry. Snape had _killed_ Dumbledore- what could he do to Ginny? “Why would she do it?”

Barnaby was slightly ahead of Ari when they made it to the castle. He peered out of the crack, insuring the coast was clear before motioning for her to follow behind him. It was unnaturally quiet with everyone gone or in bed. The only comforting thought Ari could come up with was that at least Amycus would not be joining them this evening. He was, just like everyone else, trapped down in Hogsmeade. Barnaby had slipped into whatever façade he maintained in order to be one of the death eaters. Ari didn’t even bother trying to seem impartial- Snape would see right through it, so why try and lie at all.

As the descended up into the headmaster’s office, Barnaby reached down and squeezed her hand tightly for just a moment, his eyes locked forward. She squeezed back before dropping it at her side and took a deep, steadying breath.

The office looked exactly as Dumbledore had left it which took Ari by surprise when she stepped inside. She half expected to see the man himself sitting behind his huge, oak desk, Fawkes napping at his perch. Instead, a furious Snape was sitting there, hair parted around his face like a greasy curtain, his hands folded on the desk. Ginny and Neville Longbottom were sitting in chairs facing him, twin looks of defiance on their faced. A hysterical bubble of laughter almost escaped Ari’s lips when she saw Ginny in one piece and uninjured. She looked up at the portraits on the wall for a second, trying to get a grip on her emotions and saw Dumbledore’s, looking down at her. She hesitated. Snape hadn’t removed him? That seemed odd. Maybe, she thought as she turned her attention back to the man himself, he was too afraid to? Or just couldn’t, through some kind of sticking spell.

“I don’t recall requesting your presence,” Snape told them dryly.

“Everyone else is gone,” Barnaby told Snape quickly. “Or asleep.”

“Yet,” he said, punctuating the word slowly, “You two somehow made it back. How was that?”

“Magic,” Ari said without thinking. Barnaby’s neck snapped in her direction so quickly she was surprised he didn’t break it. Snape’s eyes narrowed slightly. Get it together, she told herself, aware that Ginny had smirked at her statement. She wasn’t a student anymore. There were consequences to her smart mouth. “We came to-“

“To bail Ms. Weasley out, yes I am aware of why you’re here,” Snape told her coldly. “I am baffled as to why you accompanied her, though, Lee. I didn’t think the Weasley’s concerned you anymore.”

“I came to suggest a punishment,” he replied cooly. “I have work that needs to be done in the Forbidden Forest. Dangerous work.”

It was a best case scenario if they could sell it to Snape. Ari opened her mouth in objection. “The Forbidden forest is dangerous! Students don’t belong in there!”

“As I recall,” Snape said without passion, “You spent much of your time there when you were in school.”

“And I nearly died every time,” she reminded him. “Can’t they write lines with me?”

“Writing lines with you is hardly a punishment,” Barnaby scoffed. “What they need is a lesson they’ll always remember.”

“I agree with Barnaby,” Snape said as Ari opened her mouth to retort. The two of them both turned to look at him, surprised.

“You do?” Ari asked, almost giving away the ruse.

“I trust Mr. Lee will punish them both according the standards set here at Hogwarts,” Snape told them both, the threat lurking just beneath the surface of his words. “And I see no reason to continue this conversation. See these…students…to bed.” He said the word students as if it was distasteful to him. Neville and Ginny sprung from their chairs and strode out, Barnaby at their heels. Ari turned to follow them, but Dumbledore caught her eye again and she hesitated. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him. Her lips parted and she almost did, but common sense overtook her and instead she followed Barnaby back down the stairs, leaving her regrets in Snape’s office.

Neville and Barnaby were already walking towards their collective spaces but Ginny had waited behind for Ari.

“Why?” Ari asked, unable to form her question more eloquently. The two began making their way towards the Gryffindor tower.

“Dumbledore left Harry Gryffindor’s sword in his will,” she said fiercely. “But Snape keeps it locked up in his office. It makes me sick, he doesn’t deserve it. Harry might need it.”

“You could have been killed,” Ari said quietly after a moment. “Over a sword.”

“Harry would have done it for me,” Ginny said with conviction. “But I’m sorry…if I scared you.”

Ari sighed. “Sometimes I think nothing scares me anymore…and then Carrow tells me you broke into Snape’s office and I’m human again.”

Ginny chuckled but didn’t say anything and so the two red heads walked in silence. Ari didn’t mind, after the stress of just getting back and preventing anything terrible from happening, she needed to decompress a little. Ginny was as old as Ari had been when she was opening cursed vaults. She’d been fine, hadn’t she? Ginny had friends, just like Ari had had, and Ari needed to relax a little and trust that maybe Ginny wasn’t as helpless as she thought.

“Ari?” Ginny asked softly as they approached Gryffindor tower. Ari looked over at Ginny.

“Yeah?”

“Once, I over heard mum and dad talking about Charlie. Mum said that he was going to die following you around and dad said that he couldn’t help himself. He was in love.”

Ari didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t, instead keeping her eyes on the stone under her feet.

“Do you think it would have been better if you had opened the vaults without him?” She asked after a pregnant pause. Ari stopped to look at Ginny, who seemed so uncertain in that moment. She could lie, she thought for a moment, and tell Ginny it would have been better if Charlie had stayed behind.

“No,” she finally said, knowing that the answer broke Ginny’s heart a little. “It was better if he came with me.”

“You never worried about the danger?” She pressed. Ari shook her head.

“There was a lot less of it when he was around.”

She nodded. “I’m in love too.”

“I know.”

“Maybe stealing the sword was stupid,” Ginny conceded. “But it would have been less danger for Harry later on, if I’d managed it.”

Ari blinked, unsure of what to say to Ginny. What could anyone have said to her at seventeen? She marched all of her friends into what she was sure would end in her death, and she’d done with almost without question. Could she really expect Ginny to do as she said and not as she did? Ginny had, after all, watched her do a lot of it.

“Just be careful,” Ari finally said with a sigh. She turned to leave Ginny at Gryffindor tower, but Ginny stopped her.

“Hey!” She called. “What is detention with Barnaby going to be like?”

Ari knew for a fact that Barnaby had a bunch of baby puffskiens he was trying to name. “Brutal,” she replied with a serious face. She left Ginny there, satisfied that, for the most part, the evening had been salvaged. She’d lost her night with Charlie but everyone was safe and for now, that was the best she could hope for.


End file.
